windows 7 administrator annoyance

jman0war

I'm trying out Windows 7, but find i'm plagued with this annoying prompt about needing administrator rights or something.
But when i look in the control panel my account IS an administrator.

For example, i've installed a game and now would like to change a setting in the games.ini file. (it's in the games program directory)
I can open the ini file, try to make my changes but when i save i get Access Denied.
WTF?
I'm the only account on a fresh install of Windows 7.

sternn

I also have this issue. Im running windows 7 ultimate and it wont let me alter some directory files becasue i don't have administrative rights..even though im the only user on the computer and the administrator.

5uspect

Try right clicking and selecting "run as administrator".

jman0war

There is no "run as administrator" because this is an .ini file, not an executable.

5uspect

Then try running notepad as an admin and open the file from there.

With sudo in Linux, which Vista and 7 basically copy, you would:

sudo gedit myfile.ini

for example to edit a protected file with root privileges.

Capt'n Midnight

5uspect wrote: »

Then try running notepad as an admin and open the file from there.

With sudo in Linux, which Vista and 7 basically copy, you would:

sudo gedit myfile.ini

for example to edit a protected file with root privileges.

in windows it's
runas /user:administrator notepad myfile.ini

And windows NT's ancestory is more towards OS/2, VMS, BSD and Apple than linux

Capt'n Midnight

you could turn off UAC but that might come back and bite you later on with malware

runas /user:administrator cmd

will give you a command prompt that you can drag/drop shortcuts into to run as admin

mukki

Op what you are expierencing is User account control


its a feature in windows vista and 7

no matter who is logged in, they are in a basic user account, when a process needs administrative rights you get a prompt (consent.exe) and you have to agree to give that process admin access so that it can make registry changes and change/add/remove files in protected areas

its great because if have a usb key with a autorunning virus on it, the virus can run but it cant make any changes to the pc so its won't run again on a reboot

you can turn it off (msconfig last tab, needs reboot), but their is a slight chance that you will regreat it some day, so best to put it back on again asap

mukki

As already mentioned, you can disable UAC to return security to XP levels but this can leave the system wide open to malware. Just be careful if you go down that road, keep away from dodgy websites.

mukki wrote: »

its great because if have a usb key with a autorunning virus on it, the virus can run but it cant make any changes to the pc so its won't run again on a reboot

Thankfully Windows 7 doesn't allow autorunning apps on anything other than CDs now.

mukki

Karsini wrote: »

Thankfully Windows 7 doesn't allow autorunning apps on anything other than CDs now.

m$ should add that as a security update to vista and xp, will completely stop most modern viruses

jman0war

Thanks for the replies.
I was able to fix it by enabling the hidden Administrator account.
Gave the Users group Full Control permissions on the games folder (or was it the Program Files folder... i forget).
Anyway, it's resolved now.

Dewie

I came across this on YT. Hope it might help someone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqxH3KSxzjI