UAC prompt doesn't show; it's hidden and unclickeable! :(

DanAykroyd · 18 Nov 2010

Hi there and welcome myself to the forums!

I write this thread because on a fresh installation of Windows 7 Ultimate x64, after some time (1 day or so of using it), an action that requires user elevation (thus showing the UAC prompt), when run doesn't show such prompt and apparently it's hidden somewhere because that "object" where I clicked because unclickeable from now on and gives the "ding ding ding" typical Windows sound everytime you click there. Let me explain with and example:

I click the start menu, launch a program that requires elevation, BAM, nothing happens: the screen doesn't dim, no popup comes around, and the application didn't lunch. Now, when trying to click the start menu again, it's blocked, as in that it doesn't respond and the sound comes everytime you click it. It's like if the elevation prompt was displayed, but it's nowhere to be found. Instead, what I have to do is restart the computer (usually the only way I've found is WIN+R, cmd, shutdown /r, because nothing else responds).

The action that produces this could be anything that requires the elevation prompt: running said app, copying a file to a protected folder, etc. It happens "after a while" of using the computer, and all previous prompts display fine.

UAC is set to the maximum security level (slider up) and this never happened before, even when using the same machin on previous installations of the same version of W7.

Obviously I've googled for this and searched in this forum and I couldn't find a single post talking about this...

Anyway, I'd greatly appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks in advance guys

richc46 · 18 Nov 2010

Not really clear on your needs, but try this
Type the name of the program in search, when it pops up, right click and then run as adminsitrator.
Run as Administrator

If that does not work try an SFC command to fix corruption
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

myzr7 · 18 Nov 2010

Welcome Dan to SevenForums
Have you tried this?
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

DanAykroyd · 18 Nov 2010

Thanks for both of your answer guys!

richc46 said:

Not really clear on your needs, but try this
Type the name of the program in search, when it pops up, right click and then run as adminsitrator.
Run as Administrator

If that does not work try an SFC command to fix corruption
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Yeah, the right click Run as Administrator doesn't apply here. Even when running like that, the same thing would trigger and mess the prompts up

myzr7 said:

Welcome Dan to SevenForums
Have you tried this?
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

I haven't thought about the SFC, didn't think it would have something to do with UAC elevation prompts. I will run it now and hope the error doesn't appear anymore! Have that command been known for fixing UAC related issues also?

Thanks again!

richc46 · 18 Nov 2010

It can fix corrupion of the OS.
Run 3 times if errors are found and not corrected.

DanAykroyd · 18 Nov 2010

It just finished running and said something along "No violations to integrity found" (something like that; stupid me I didn't copied the text!)

Does that means that "everything was OK", thus nothing was fixed?

RdJ · 18 Sep 2013

I'm sorry to reply to such an old thread, but this is the only result that came up when searching Google. I've got exactly the same problem. Programs that need admin rights just won't run. Also, MS Security Essentials's real-time av is disabled and I can't enable it (because I need admin rights for that). I tried starting Windows in safe mode and the affected programs just run there, because there's no UAC in safe mode.

I also did a system restore to a couple of days ago. After the system restore finished and Windows had rebooted, Everything worked fine. But after shutting down and booting later on the day, the same problem occurred. I've tried restoring to two restore points, both with this effect.

Did you find a solution to the problem, DanAykroyd? Or does anyone else have an idea?

EDIT:

Some more things I found out.

The wifi icon in the taskbar doesn't do anything. It just sits there in it's "connecting mode" (empty bars plus a loading circle) and clicking it has no effect whatsoever, i.e. no popup with current connections and wifi APs. This is regardless of whether the wifi adapter is enabled or disabled. (I can toggle that with a hardware button on the laptop, network center doesn't work.) When the adapter is enabled and I'm near an AP I've connected to before, I can browse the internet using Chrome.

The first time I had the UAC problem, Explorer didn't work, probably because the RPC service wasn't running. Error message I got: "The remote procedure call failed and did not execute". I couldn't check the RPC service, because you need admin rights to open services.msc. When I say Explorer didn't work, that means it only didn't work when I wanted to open a window. Taskbar did work. After a reboot this problem was gone.

EDIT 2:

I did a full scan with MalwareBytes, it didn't detect anything.

EDIT 3:

Microsoft Security Essentials also didn't find anything.
I did both scans in safe mode.

I just tried to start in normal mode. After I logged in, I got a black screen with a little message box saying "Please wait". Never seen anything like that message box in Windows before. Then, nothing happened. It turned out the black screen actually was my desktop, but Explorer didn't start and the background didn't work. I then checked task manager (ctrl+alt+delete just worked) and found that only very few processes were running (about 15).

RdJ · 20 Sep 2013

Anyone?

RdJ · 20 Sep 2013

Another scan I did came up blank. This time McAfee's Stinger, also in safe mode.

Made a new thread: UAC message don't show up and other random problems with Windows