"Access Denied" to many registry entries.

[originaljgf]

Win7 Ultimate x86 update install over Vista Home Premium x86. All working so far except as I try to tweak to my satisfaction (for example removing "Libraries" and "Favorites" from explorer) regedit tells me "Access denied, you do not have permission...."; trying to alleviate this irritant I'm told i don't have permission to give myself permission. Running in admin account with UAC disabled.

FWIW, I did a clean install of this same Win7 on an old laptop a couple of years ago and made all these edits with no problem.

So, just where do I kick this thing so I can make these edits?

 

[Alejandro85]

Most likely the affected registry keys are owned and locked by the TrustedInstaller user, and not even administrator group have been given access. Since you have administrator access, you can simply take ownership of the problematic keys and give yourself access before making the changes.

As TrustedInstaller is a service account, you can't login as it to avoid the nuance.

 

[diz]

To remove Libraries and Favorites you can use winaero ( Winaero Tweaker )

But if you need TrustedInstaller access to the registry, you can use AdvancedRun
( AdvancedRun - Run a Windows program with different settings )

(It's important that you run AdvancedRun as administrator)

 

[originaljgf]

Thanks for the info, will try those utils.

"take ownership of the problematic keys and give yourself access before making the changes."
My first thought also, but there is no option to take ownership.

I'm curious if there is something i should/could have done during install to prevent this issue, or is it endemic to an upgrade install (as noted I had installed the same win7, from the same disk, on this laptop I'm currently using and never experienced any permissions issues; but this was a clean install to a formatted drive).

 

[Alejandro85]

"take ownership of the problematic keys and give yourself access before making the changes."
My first thought also, but there is no option to take ownership.

You can change the owner in the owner tab of the permissions dialog box, just the very same process as with normal files.

I'm curious if there is something i should/could have done during install to prevent this issue, or is it endemic to an upgrade install (as noted I had installed the same win7, from the same disk, on this laptop I'm currently using and never experienced any permissions issues; but this was a clean install to a formatted drive).

This is a normal permission setting of a default Windows install, upgraded or not, and has been the standard since at least Windows 7 (don't remember on Vista) and continues to do so into Windows 11.

The fact that TrustedInstaller owns and controls some files and registry keys is to prevent accidental modification of some critical system files, and has been a common thing since years, not really an issue per itself (but annoying if you really want to change one of those).

It's just a matter of a trade-off between "protecting" the careless user from himself vs annoying the power user. Windows designers have always taken the first attitude.