Windows 7 Admin Status

[Darklighter]

Greetings...

I have learned ll about the "hidden" Admin account in Windows 7, and how to enable it. However, I have an account (Admin level) which is the only active account on a fresh install of Win7... but it keeps denying me access to stuff saying I'm not the Admin or don't have permission. How can I give full permissions/access to my current account?

Thanks.

 

[JackMDS]

What is that you can not access as an Admin?

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

Messed up ACLs or just UAC? RMB > "Run as Administrator" should allow you to run applications as an Administrator.

 

[MrChad]

Greetings...

I have learned ll about the "hidden" Admin account in Windows 7, and how to enable it. However, I have an account (Admin level) which is the only active account on a fresh install of Win7... but it keeps denying me access to stuff saying I'm not the Admin or don't have permission. How can I give full permissions/access to my current account?

Thanks.

With UAC enabled, local administrator accounts run as standard user accounts. This is a good thing in general from a security perspective. If you need administrative privileges for a particular app, you can hold SHIFT, right click the shortcut and choose Run as Administrator.

For day-to-day usage, you shouldn't need administrative access. The Windows and Program Files folders are off limits, but apps shouldn't be writing to those locations except during installation.

 

[Darklighter]

Thanks for the replies...

For instance, I could not even open my Documents and Settings folder (and some of the subsequent folders within) until I fiddled with the security settings (re permissions) under the Properties. Also, a few CMD based items wouldn't run becuase it said I had to be the Administrator. Coming from WinXP, where my one, personal, admin-level account would let me do anything and everything, this is frustrating. Is there a way I can make my current, personal, Admin-level Win7 account have the same freedom?

 

[Modelworks]

To get the same level of Admin like in xp you can turn off UAC completely. It will warn you that the pc will be vulnerable, the world will end and the universe will implode, but I did it on my pc because I do a lot of editing of system files and it just got too annoying,.

 

[JackMDS]

It was very easy in few sec. to totaly open every thing in WinXP.

While some of us work alone on their computers, and presumably know what they are doing, the Openness in XP translated in the general public into a major security problem.

Thus with the advance of the OS' some part of the installation made secure.

I can tell you what I do in Vista and Win7.

I opened a folder under C: (let say I called it MY Stuff).

Under this folder I built a small system of sub folders that is a sort of combination between the way the My Document is built by default and the way I like to store my info.

I enable the Guest account and set the My Stuff folder to be fully opened to every one.

If I want to secure a specific sub folder in this structure I can change its Sharing permission without affecting other part of the folder settings.

If One saves, some time, and gain some energy by reducing Complaining time, it does not take long to organize such personal sub system. ()

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A side from the above, some general issues of "Run as" can also be solved by adding this to the right click menu.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...ership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/

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P.S. Another thing that is frequently miss-used is the Sharing configuration is the Everyone choice.

Everyone does not mean every one that wants to log and use the system, it maens every one that is already on the allowed list of permissions. It is done just to save the time of creating a list of all the allowed user.

Switching On the Guest account and configuring it with correct rights to the Guests is the Real "Every One".

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

This copypasta is why you can't open Documents and Settings:

These shortcuts you're seeing are hardlinks, reference points to other folders in the file system.

These hardlinks are left throughout the system to assist software in finding the correct places to store data. If an application attempts to automatically output video files to a previously used known folder location (explicitly using an address) Windows will redirect its output to the correct location. Let's say the file being output is a video file into the user's "My Videos" folder.

In Windows XP the output address would look like this:
C:\Documents and Settings\User1\My Documents\My Videos

In Windows Vista and 7 the address is as follows:
C:\Users\User1\My Videos

The differences are obvious, especially to an end user, but not to PC software. With no hardlink assistance the application would fail to find the desired directory, how it reacts beyond that is an unknown. Prompt the user for input? Create the desired directory without user input? Software failure?

Hardlinks in Windows 7, in this example, redirect traffic from "C:\Documents and Settings" to C:\Users and again from "\User1\My Documents\My Videos" to "\User1\My Videos". This ensures that your crusty, old applications continue to function without the need for additional developer or user interaction.

In short, Documents and Settings doesn't exist anymore. There is now only a shortcut to Users called Documents and Settings.