Can no longer install without doing "Run As Admin"..

orlando1974 · 04 Feb 2014

I'd love to mark this one as solved but we are stumped...

andrew129260 · 05 Feb 2014

At this point, you might want to consider doing a repair install.

Repair Install

Clean install is another option:

Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

I say this because you keep having issues launching and using exe files, as you get a denied message.

This is the fastest way to fix the issue and get you running again.

When you run as the admin account, does everything work fine?

orlando1974 · 05 Feb 2014

Hi Andrew... the idea of resinstalling Windows again (which I just did last week) is highly unappealing! Here's another clue: there is a folder on my E: drive (which is part of my 2TB projects drive) that when I tried to open gave me the following popup:

"You don't currently have permission to access this folder. Click Continue to permanently get access to this folder."

This is unexplicable because its on a partition I had chosen to Take Ownership of. Furthermore I am logged in using my Admin account. !?! but interestingly this is a folder (as well as another) that used to be included in my user library before I did the resinstall.

I wonder if all of this mess started when I had to resize partitions some time ago. (I didnt touch my C: drive but who knows...could it be this had something to do with it?)

ThrashZone · 05 Feb 2014

Hi,
Could you post or take screen shots of you Uninstall a program lists please to see exactly what you downloaded after reloading windows,
Cheers.

Britton30 · 05 Feb 2014

Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image
Let's see what your disks look like.

gregrocker · 05 Feb 2014

Everything I read here tells me it's likely some of the tweaks you've done which has corrupted the User account, so as with a reinstall you want to limit what you reimport so that hidden AppData tweaks which contain the corruption are not brought back into a pristine new Account, Repair Install, or Reinstall.

Win7 is so light it cannot stand much tweaking outside of normal user settings, so if you go about that course again i would save Restore Points before every change.

Saving a baseline System Image after doing a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 (same for retail) may be your best approach since you'll also learn what works best based on thousands we've helped with here.

ICIT2LOL · 06 Feb 2014

I am with Greg only one way and for my 2 cents worth I always back up the registry too immediately after the install.

orlando1974 · 06 Feb 2014

OK I will look into all this guys... BTW, would it be a problem that I only have 4 to 9 GB left on my C: drive? (120GB SSD)? Could this be what is causing problems? I'll eventually replace it with a 256GB but right now not financially feasable.

gregrocker · 06 Feb 2014

You can move User folder data to another HD, link it to the User folders on C using Library - Include a Folder - Windows 7 Forum and Library - Set Save Folder - Windows 7 Help Forums

orlando1974 · 07 Feb 2014

thanks greg - im already familiar with how to do this - i just wondered if having low space on C: (approx 5 to 8 GBs) would be problematic... that was more what I was interested in finding out because it is showing the "red line" rather than the blue line for that drive. im guessing even if its in the red, having still 5GB should not cause any issues (even with the temp directory)...unless Im wrong?

Question#2: If/when reinstalling Windows, is it best to give the main account the name "admin", so that it will be Users/Admin/.... and then when I create a Standard account, I can give that one my name so that it will be Users/Orlando/... ?