User Account Permissions Issue

[SporkLover]

Hello everyone, long time lurker, first time caller.

My desktop PC, (win 7 64 bit, home premium), recently started exhibiting strange issues. It all goes back to the night I ran windows update, which included the service pack 1.

Everything seemed to go ok, but after a reboot I started getting strange error messages. Gadgets couldn't launch because system.ini was in use, Ati Catalyst monitor program could not start, or firefox was already running in the background. I couldnt launch itunes because i didnt have permissions, etc. Having once upon a time worked in the IT field as a sys/network admin, I felt I was pretty equipped to tackle this issue.

I rolled back to previous restore points. No joy, even two months back I still had the issues. I unistalled all of the updates, still no joy.

So I went back and started to research the issue I had with iTunes. Well after poking around a bit, I found out all of my issues were permissions related. All of the error messages would go away if I launched those affected programs with a shift + right click.

Just for kicks I created another user account, just to see if it also had the permissions issue. It did not.

So my question is this, can anyone point me in the right direction to troubleshoot this one user accounts permissions issue? If not, I suppose I can go the the process of migrating my user files to another account. I'd rather find the solution though . Tia

 

[SporkLover]

I guess I will just copy the files over to a new user account.

 

[hjonesMCT]

Hi Tia,

I hope I don't offend when I ask about your current UAC settings. Do you, as many admins seem to these days, turn off UAC for yourself? If so, you may have a malware issue. In that case, have you run any malware checks? I like the results I get using Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) or Malwarebytes.

Best of luck!! Don't migrate yet. We'll fix it.

 

[SporkLover]

Thanks for the reply

I leave UAC settings on. It's an annoying additional clicks, however, I leave it on.

As far as malware goes, I use Windows Defender and Avast. When I surf the net, I use Firefox and all of the Script Blockers, Java Blockers, Flash Blockers, etc until I approve the browser to load those elements. I'm pretty confident that it's not a malware issue as I am comfortable about those sorts of things, and I don't engage in the typical risky behaviors that invite those sorts of issues.

 

[hjonesMCT]

Wow! Quick reply!

Great. It sounds like you're really conscientious. The thing about Firefox already running on startup is weird. Without knowing much more about it, here's the next few steps I'd take.

1. Download and run Malwarebytes. It's a really great and thorough tool. Avast tends to have "unexpected results" and mess with Windows 7, so I recommend actually getting rid of that if possible. Microsoft Security Essentials is a great, FREE replacement for both Windows Defender and Avast.

2. Next, go to Run (Windows key + R) and type control userpasswords2. Check your permissions in there, make sure your account has Administrator perms.

I hope that helps--it's late--let's see if that works, then we'll get drastic.

Best,

Heather

 

[SporkLover]

I think it's time to get drastic .

No malware. I did ditch avast in favor of microsofts free tool.

When I ran the command, my user account did appear to be in the appropriate user groups, too include administrators.