Security - User Permissions - Why don't I have access to everything?

Akimbo · 04 Jun 2014

UPDATE: I went to the .exe and checked my permissions, I had no "special" permissions just read/write iirc. Set my access to full control and ran the .exe directly (no shortcut) still doesn't work properly. Neither does running as administrator. I should also mention that I'm able to copy files into there without any problem...So now I have no idea what it's doing. One weird thing I noticed though was that my user folder has a padlock on it...doesn't seem to make any difference, but again I don't remember that ever being there on my previous installation.
Okay, so I have my new PC up and running.

Windows 7 installed fine, set it up as far as I can tell exactly how I have every time before...however I think I'm still having problems with being the "total admin".

I run an Authoring Tool for E-Learning and it ran fine on my previous PC/Win7 installation. Now it was refusing me access to the temp folder.

I looked into the permissions for it and found the following:

The everyone group has full permission, but when I look at my account/group I only have "special permission". Just...wtf? I'm the only user on this PC, I don't seem to have a problem with anything else, but why if I'm the "admin" (and only user) do I not have full permissions for everything?

Now, I set my permission to "full control", but "special permissions" is still ticked. The problem is that this program writes to the temp folder when you want to preview your work and it's giving me:

Access Denied to "file:///C:/Users/Jonathan/AppData/Local/Temp/"

Is there a simple way to just kick Win7 in the arse and give me administrator access, will full control and none of this sneaky "special permissions" bs?

Am I not set up as the "primary" administrator?

Am I set up as just a user with admin power?

Am I somehow a member of the wrong group?

How did I end up restricting my OWN access to stuff?

It's possible I had to fix this on my last PC, but it's been so long I honestly don't remember.
- Now to be clear, while getting this to work would be great, what I'm really after is setting Win7 so I NEVER HAVE TO SET ACCESS FOR ANYTHING EVER AGAIN. + Now to be clear, while getting this to work would be great, what I'm really after is setting Win7 so I never have to set access to anything again?
Apologies for somewhat angry post, but I'm really sick of Windows trying to fight me every step of the way

+

p.s. I realise I can enable the "master admin" account or whatever it is, but I don't think I did that on my last install; as I still had the option to "run as administrator" on my right-click menus...

Arc · 04 Jun 2014

Windows does not give access or ownership or permission to all system files to any standard user, even not to the administrator. The permissions are with TrustedInstaller. You may read about it here: What is TrustedInstaller.exe in Windows 7 | 8 or here: Windows Modules Installer - TrustedInstaller.exe - Program Information

You can take ownership of the files....

But remember that it is risky. Better you dont use it abruptly, without consulting with some advanced user in our forums.

LMiller7 · 04 Jun 2014

Restricting an admin account is a compromise between convenience and security.

Back in XP and older an admin could pretty much anything they wanted with no restrictions. By default programs run with the same rights as the account under which they are running. If that account is an admin then anything goes. All very nice it would seem.

That is until you understand the implications for security. Now in 2014 security is a much bigger problem than it was way back in 2001 when XP was released. The problem arises when the admin user unknowingly runs some malicious software. It has the exact same rights as the user and anything goes. That malicious software can delete or modify system files and make any system changes it desires, all without the users knowledge. For malware authors this is great.

And there is more. Most computer users see a computer as an appliance, something to get the job done. Even if that job is just playing games or browsing the Internet. They don't know much about computers and don't want to learn. Giving such users full time admin rights is dangerous. Many will delete things they don't understand and think they don't need. And malicious websites can easily trick such users into installing dangerous software. Even advanced users sometimes fall victim to this.

When Vista was in the design stages security was becoming a serious problem and it was anticipated would only get worse. It has. So Microsoft decided to do something about it. By default an admin account no longer has the full privileges it once had but only that of a limited user. By means of UAC the admin user can request or authorize the full rights of the account when this is needed. Remember that software has the same privileges as the account running it. If that software is malicious it will often be stopped dead. That is good for security.

It is not a perfect solution, but what designed by man is? It it one more tool in the fight against malware. And in the present day we need all the help we can get.

kayzee12 · 05 Aug 2015

So after trying all of the suggestions and getting nowhere I had a brainstorm. I right clicked drive C, clicked properties, clicked permissions then advanced and changed the owner name to mine and finally changed all the permissions except special permissions. For some reason it wouldn't let me, but I'm happy now.