vista user account problemssss

[brettyb2006]

hey all , first id like to say hello as im new to the forums.

second of all , im here coz i was playing around with my user accounts in vista ultimate , so i could be the admininstrator , and set up a 'standard account' for my housemate for when he uses my pc , but now i cant even access my c: ( as an admin ) it says access denied , along with some other programs on my pc , such as partition magic etc. i remember going to my c: and right clicking then to properties > then advance and changing some of the settings which the 'standard user' could access , ( as i was trying to make it , so my housemate could not access the c: and its contents ) but now when i login into my account , i goto my c: and it says 'access denied' , when i right click c: and goto properties , and try to reclaim the ownership , it still says access denied. everything i try to do in user accounts tells me access is denied , and i am trying to reset everything with out formatting , to atleast get things back to how they were. some advice would be great , man i stuffed up ! haha

cheers
bretto

 

[mechBgon]

With Vista, your Admin account doesn't always wear its Admin superhero cape, even when you're logged onto the Admin account. It goes around incognito as if it were a regular old Standard User, so that if its evil supervillain enemies grab its Death Ray, there's no dilithium crystals in it, and they can't shoot the Admin with its own Death Ray. This is a security feature

So if you took all permissions away from the Users group, then you've also taken them away from your Admin account when it's in its Clark Kent disguise

So give back the customary privileges to the Users group, for starters. Should look like this pic :camera:. Use the Edit button there.

 

[brettyb2006]

hey there , thanks for your reply.

after viewing your pic , then checking out my c: properties , under the user groups , it has nothing listed what so ever , except for a message saying " to continue, u must be an administrative user with permission to view this object's security properties.

do u want to contune ?
"continue button" (with a sheild)

and then when i click the continue button , it also says 'cant open access control editor. access is denied.

cheers
bretto

 

[mechBgon]

First off, to restrict a user like that, use Vista's Parental Controls feature

To fix your current Catch-22 problem, as a starting point, try a System Restore to before you changed stuff. To do that, click Start and put System Restore into the Search box, hit ENTER, and approve the approval prompt (hopefully this isn't busted as well).


If that doesn't work, I think it can be fixed another way, but I don't have stray Vista systems lying around to experiment on in order to get the command syntax correct on the first try, so first try System Restore and post back whether it worked or not.

 

[brettyb2006]

hey there thanks again for your reply , i just tried system restore , its also saying i dont have the permissions ahhhh

 

[mechBgon]

Ok, try this next:

1) go to Start > All Programs > Accessories and there'll be Command Prompt on the menu. Right-click on Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator, then OK the prompt.

2) now you should have a black command box where you can type commands. Type this command and hit ENTER:

rstrui

If successful, you now have the System Restore thingie on-screen. By running the Command Prompt box at the full Run As Administrator mode, you bypass that Catch-22 where your Admin account wasn't able to get out of Standard mode into Admin mode when it needed to.

Any good?

 

[brettyb2006]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Ok, try this next:

1) go to Start > All Programs > Accessories and there'll be Command Prompt on the menu. Right-click on Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator, then OK the prompt.

2) now you should have a black command box where you can type commands. Type this command and hit ENTER:

rstrui

If successful, you now have the System Restore thingie on-screen. By running the Command Prompt box at the full Run As Administrator mode, you bypass that Catch-22 where your Admin account wasn't able to get out of Standard mode into Admin mode when it needed to.

Any good?

sorry for the late reply ! , and yer thats awesome , it popped up the system restore screen ! so whats the best bet , to do the recommonded restore or i think the other option was like a custom one ? thanks heaps for your help !

cheers
bretto

 

[brettyb2006]

Originally posted by: brettyb2006

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Ok, try this next:

1) go to Start > All Programs > Accessories and there'll be Command Prompt on the menu. Right-click on Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator, then OK the prompt.

2) now you should have a black command box where you can type commands. Type this command and hit ENTER:

rstrui

If successful, you now have the System Restore thingie on-screen. By running the Command Prompt box at the full Run As Administrator mode, you bypass that Catch-22 where your Admin account wasn't able to get out of Standard mode into Admin mode when it needed to.

Any good?

sorry for the late reply ! , and yer thats awesome , it popped up the system restore screen ! so whats the best bet , to do the recommonded restore or i think the other option was like a custom one ? thanks heaps for your help !

cheers
bretto

just an update , i got it working again now , i basically just had to reclaim the ownership of the admin , and i wasnt doing it correctly , but i just figured it out , it was easy done ! but would like to thank u for your time and assistance in helping me , it was highly appreciated ! thanks !

cheers
bretto

 

[bharatwaja]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
With Vista, your Admin account doesn't always wear its Admin superhero cape, even when you're logged onto the Admin account. It goes around incognito as if it were a regular old Standard User, so that if its evil supervillain enemies grab its Death Ray, there's no dilithium crystals in it, and they can't shoot the Admin with its own Death Ray.
So if you took all permissions away from the Users group, then you've also taken them away from your Admin account when it's in its Clark Kent disguise

Wow, that was like something "HOUSE" would have said.... like one of his metaphors:thumbsup:

@brettyb2006:

Instead of a system restore you could reset permissions for the required folders from command prompt.... The command to be used for that is "icacls".... open up a command prompt as admin like before and you will be able to restore permissions...

Try this...
"icacls folder-name /grant username:F"
in the command prompt opened as Admin, without the quotes and substitute the appropriate folder names and your-username in place of "username"...

you can also give the entire path in place of folder-name to change permission("c:\Users\[your-username]\something"... for eg).... try this and let me know how it works out....

To read more about icacls just type in icacls in cmd-prompt and press enter to read the default manual page entry....

****EDIT****
@brettyb2006:
If your folder name has a space in it, you have to enclose the name within double-quotes or this " ".........

for eg...
c:\>icacls "folder name" /grant username:F
or
c:\>icacls "c:\folder name" /grant username:F
(if you specify entire path)

 

[bharatwaja]

How exactly did you solve your problem? Posting here might help others searching for something like this in future, you know, through that little magic that google does....

anyway, welcome to AT forums....

 

[brettyb2006]

Originally posted by: bharatwaja
How exactly did you solve your problem? Posting here might help others searching for something like this in future, you know, through that little magic that google does....

anyway, welcome to AT forums....

hey there , thanks for your reply. all i done was went to my c: ( the part that i didnt have permission for ) and then right click > properties > security tab > then advance ( as i couldnt click edit , to get into the permissons ) > owner > clicked my username and then clicked 'ok'. all i had done was wiped my own admin owernship i beleive but coz it was the default account , i was able to pass them back over to myself so basically just had to reclaim the owership and it worked fine. and now i have my user accounts set up properly. and are all working great , thanks to those who replied and helped me out , great forums , and i will be staying for sure !

cheers
bretto