Programs suddently need to be "Run as Administrator"

[Vicente Lisboa]

Greetings Ye Forumites!

Forgive me for bringing forth yet another "Run as Administrator" question, of which my lurking as found many, but this particular issue I have not yet seen adressed.

I have read in other threads that the "Run as Administrator" function and the UAC are handy tools, put in place to prevent daring users who use their Administrator Accounts on a daily basis from falling pray to mallware 'n similar stuff.

That's fine and dandy. I've also read usefull guides on how to set programs to always run as administrator, or how to shut down UAC warnings.

But what I haven't read, is what happened to me: Programs I've instaled and been using for a good while now, and that always worked fine, now won't open at all, because I do not have the necessary authorization... while I'm using the Administrator account. Of course I can still right-click and "Run as Administrator", but I didn't have to before.

Now, I know I can make it so they always run, but I'd much rather have things go back to the way they were before. What's stopping me, you ask? Well I have no idea what changed. I didn't change anything in the accounts, I didn't made changes to the programs... I didn't change any security definitions (that I recall)... I'm at a loss here.

Anyone knows what might be going on?

Cheers!

 

[seekermeister]

Don't know what happened, but you could do a System Restore, if there is a restore point available with an appropriate date.

 

[tcman47]

What changed, who knows?

Turn off account control completely and give full control permission to all your hard drives, end of story.

Windows 7 is wacky in that apparently it does not give full control permission to admin users as default out of the box if you will.

TC

 

[logicearth]

Turn off account control completely and give full control permission to all your hard drives, end of story.

And cause even more problems....bad advice very bad.

 

[Vicente Lisboa]

Don't know what happened, but you could do a System Restore, if there is a restore point available with an appropriate date.

I'm afraid there isn't one. Yes, I know, sloopy managing

edit: Oh, I just noticed something that might be relevant (or not). I now also get prompted by UAC for every single copy-pasting that I do, which did not happen before. Hope that means something to someone.

 

[seekermeister]

What is your UAC set at? It shouldn't be involved in copy/pastes regardless of the setting, but it's worth looking at.

 

[DrWho]

If your computer is not sitting in a public environment, like in a busy office or cyber cafe, for God's sake, turn off that obnoxious UAC and take control of all your files and folders, by running the "Take Ownership" script.
It's the one we've been talking about here, for months.
You can download that here:
InstallTakeOwnership.reg - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

And if you're squeamish about tweaking the registry to get rid of UAC,
then run this little script to get the job done in about one second.
DisableUAC.reg - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

Both scripts are tried and true and 100% malware FREE.

Then make dam'd sure you're getting at least one System Restore point every day.
That's your first line of defense against your registry being tweaked without your knowing it.

The script to create a new restore point can be downloaded here:
Set Restore Point.vbs - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

Put the script in your "Startup" folder to force a daily restore point.
I wouldn't be without mine. I use it at least once every week.

Good Luck and Happy Holidays!
The Doctor

 

[Backrubber]

Dr Who,

I turned off UAC, downloaded and put the set restore point.vbs file into my startup folder, but I don't see it listed and I did a couple of restarts but do not see new restore points. What did I do wrong?

 

[Tepid]

Turn off UAC at your own risk.

Personally, it's bad advice.

Also,, Take Ownership should not be used on the entire hard drive and I am seeing it thrown around WAYYYyyyy too much, imo.

Yes, it's a great tool. And I love it.

Yes, it can be used incorrectly.

 

[Vicente Lisboa]

What is your UAC set at? It shouldn't be involved in copy/pastes regardless of the setting, but it's worth looking at.

Default - "Notify me only when programs try to change my computer"

And it's indeed strange that it fires with stuff like videogames, but if there's some corruption involved, AVG and Comodo aren't detecting it.

Still no idea lads? I apreciate the suggestion to make restore points more regularly, but that doesn't really solve my problem at this point. I did check the proprities of my games and other programs affected by this problem, and even non-administrators should be able to run them.

Oh, and I'm always conecting to new networks at University Libraries and such, so I'd rather not expose myself completly.

Cheers!

 

[Tepid]

There are several things that could be happening.

Something happened to the ACL (Access Control List) of your systems security.
This will/MAY not be completely easy to resolve completely.

With Copy/Paste operations,,, where are you copying from and pasting to,,, specifically (ie. E: to C: , E: to E: , C: to C: ,, what folder on the C: drive,,) Copy and Paste or writing files to the Root of C: or certain folders under C: WILL prompt for UAC.

Or, something happened to UAC or other Security setting, (ie. a Group Policy may have been set by one of the universities you connected to, I am purely speculating, but it is possible). This is not really easy to overcome, and will simply get reset when you reconnect, IF this is the case.

You can use TakeOwn ,, but use it properly.
It should be used on individual files and shortcuts as needed. Not on the entire HDD all at once. Which you can do. And only on Executables in the Program Files folder. Anywhere else (ie. windows, system folders, etc.) to be honest,, it may be better to backup data, nuke and reload.

Have you gone through and tried Right Clicking an Icon or Executable and checking the properties?
Check if Run as Admin is set. Check security tab (ACL) to see what shows up there.

it's a lot to try and work out security issues of this nature.
Sometimes, it is just better to backup data, nuke and reload.

You could try turning off UAC (temporarily) to see if you have any of the same issues. Which you probably won't, then re-enable it tot he recommended settings, and see what happens.