Some programs will only work if run as admin

[Scootmien]

Hi all

I'm a new member to the site and I have a question regarding a new install of Windows 7 on a new SSD.

I upgraded my system three weeks ago and swapped out the mobo, CPU, RAM and hard drive.

Because of this, I did a fresh install of Windows 7 on the new 120Gb SSD.

Last week, I noticed that some programs will only run if I right click and run as an administrator. for reference, when I try to double left clik to run nothing happens. No cursor change, no spike in CPU/RAM activity, nothing at all.

I have a few storage drives upon which I install all non-system programs and the odd thing is that any program that predates the new install of Win7 will run absolutely perfectly if I left click as normal. Any program installed after the upgrade will only work if I right click and run as admin.

I've run MBAM, BitDefender, AdAware and Nod32 and there are no viruses that I can find.

I thought it might be that the computer has lost the association for .exe programs but that isn't the case if older programs run fine from a left click.

I have turned UAC off and that hasn't done anything to help.

So this is a cry for help. i feel sure that I am missing something fundamental but as I have never encountered this issue beofre, I have no answers.

Googling this question just turns up a lot of people who appear to have the same problem for ALL programs (which I don't) and there are numerous 'fixes', many of which I have tried to no avail.

Any help gratefully received please.

Thanks

 

[Scootmien]

I created another user account and this one has no problems left double clicking and running the programs that my other account had issues with. Now i'm really stumped. I guess I could delete the first account and transfer everything over to the new account but it looks like it will be a faf and might be better to just reinstall windows. EDIT: Running the main account in Safe Mode allows me to interact with programs properly. I ran virus/malware scanners whilst in Safe Mode and still nothing. Computer all clean. Any help gratefully received please.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

does the account you have troubles with have admin privileges or it isn't?

go in "control panel", "user accounts", "manage other accounts" to see all accounts listed, if it has admin privileges it should say either Administrator or Standard user under the account name. If it's Administrator, then it has admin privileges, if it is Standard User, it does not.

 

[NavM]

Last week, I noticed that some programs will only run if I right click and run as an administrator

What are these programs? Programs such as Fraps or Restoration require admin permissions to run.

 

[Scootmien]

Hi NavM and bobafetthotmail, thanks for the responses.

Yes the account is an admin account.

The programs are things like the current Firefox installer, Skype Installer, Teamspeak, Kies or my Lexmark printer installer. None of these programs (which are on a storage drive, so not affected by the recent install on Win7) required me to right click and run as admin before they worked.

Not all of the programs are installers. For instance VLC which is installed on my media drive now requires me to run as admin to get it to work. Previously, it did not do this at all.

There are many other programs having this issue. I don't use Fraps or Restoration.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

I'd double check if the account is an Admin and if the UAC is really disabled.

Then try to use the other account you made, set the account you made as Standard User, play around a bit and see if it does what it was supposed to do (still requiring you to run stuff as admin), then reboot, then set it as admin again. It's just what I'd do out of gut feeling though, won't hurt but isn't guaranteed to fix anything.

Second random thought. I had some issues some time ago because my external HDD would not let non-admin stuff either run or modify files already on the drive. But that was annoying only because I rarely use Admin accounts for day-to-day use.

Try moving the installers to the internal drive (put them on the desktop) and see if they still require admin privileges to run or whatever. If they run properly, then you have to go to the properties of the external storage device (right click on its icon when in Computer) and then look at the security tab, it should allow admins do do everything, if it does not, change the settings from there.

Also, what do you mean exactly by "installed on an external drive"? If you installed it from a previous Win7 installation they aren't "installed" in the new installation as well, while they can still be manually run.

 

[Scootmien]

I'd double check if the account is an Admin and if the UAC is really disabled.

Then try to use the other account you made, set the account you made as Standard User, play around a bit and see if it does what it was supposed to do (still requiring you to run stuff as admin), then reboot, then set it as admin again. It's just what I'd do out of gut feeling though, won't hurt but isn't guaranteed to fix anything.

Second random thought. I had some issues some time ago because my external HDD would not let non-admin stuff either run or modify files already on the drive. But that was annoying only because I rarely use Admin accounts for day-to-day use.

Try moving the installers to the internal drive (put them on the desktop) and see if they still require admin privileges to run or whatever. If they run properly, then you have to go to the properties of the external storage device (right click on its icon when in Computer) and then look at the security tab, it should allow admins do do everything, if it does not, change the settings from there.

Also, what do you mean exactly by "installed on an external drive"? If you installed it from a previous Win7 installation they aren't "installed" in the new installation as well, while they can still be manually run.

Thanks for that, bobafetthotmail.

Double checked and the account is definitely an admin account and UAC is definitely off.

I had some issues with photos not opening either but once I put them on the desktop and tried to open them, they worked fine, so I think you're on to something. I'll check when I get home.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Scootmien]

OK, sorry for the delay in posting but work has been hectic.

If I move an installer to my C: drive, it works fine. If I leave it on the storage drive, it requires run as admin rights.

I've checked permissions and admins can do everything (Full control downwards) except 'Special Permissions'.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Getting closer to it then.

Try altering the permissions of Users (so they can do everything Admins can do) and see if the problem still appears.

If the problem persists there must be some restriction placed on executing everything from HDDs. Parental control? An antivirus being too trigger-happy?

If that solves it (well it's more a workaround than a fix), your Win 7 thinks you are a User while you are not for some reason. Have you tried downgrading the troubled account to User and then giving it Admin status again as I told you before?

And with this I'm out of ideas.

 

[Scootmien]

Thanks mate.

I tried the suggestion in your first paragraph, no joy.

Parental control is definitely off. and i've tried everything without a virus checker started, still no joy there either.

I've just tried downgrading the troubled account to a standard user then upgrading it to admin, still won't allow me to run programs as normal.

I do think it is definitely a permissions problem now i've come to look at it in more detail though. Any other suggestions gratefully received.

 

[Scootmien]

(continued from last post on previous page)

I created a new user account. Gave it admin rights, logged off the old one, logged on to the new one, everything fine; I could access programs as normal.

I deleted the 'old' admin account and set up the new account as I like it (wallpaper, theme, email, etc etc) now the new account is back to not being able to run stuff unless it's run as admin.

This is driving me up the wall. I'm getting to the point where I will just format the entire HDD and start from scratch.

 

[Scootmien]

I've found the answer! For some reason, the affected files have "This file came from another computer and might be blocked" on the General tab of the Properties options. 'Unblocking' those files causes them to behave normally.

I've never seen this before on any version of Windows and i've had Win7 for a couple of years or thereabouts and not seen it before on that either.

There is a GPEDIT command to cause the Windows to not save 'stream' info, which I gather is the root of this problem. Although it won't work retrospectively, it will work on any future files downloaded from the 'net.

I also understand there is an option in IE to stop this but being that IE isn't installed, I won't be doing it.

I'll see if there is something similar in Firefox.