[SOLVED] Administrator permission issues when installing or running applications

[v_sammie]

I cannot install applications if I don't run it as administrator because I get 'write permission error' issues.
Many apps also have issues running if I don't run them as administrator.

My user account is listed as part of Administrators.

I already tried changing security settings of the whole C:\ drive without any success.
(I've set the Owner of the drive and all subfolders to my current user account)

Any ideas on how I can fix this?

 

[Colif]

I already tried changing security settings of the whole C:\ drive without any success.
(I've set the Owner of the drive and all subfolders to my current user account)

this can have negative effects, you might want to run system restore and reload a date prior to this change

Playing with permissions can lead to needing to reinstall windows to fix it. If you take permissions away from some system controlled users, you won't be able to do anything.

You could try to make a new local user and see if it has same problems - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au...-create-a-local-user-or-administrator-account
make it admin
while on old user, go to C/users folder
copy contents of the old user folder
onto the new user folder

this gives it same access as current user so you don't have to install everything again. Login and see if it makes any difference.

I suspect it won't help. I think permissions are at a higher level, so you might need to clean install to fix it.

 

[v_sammie]

Ok I see.
This issue happened just after having re-installed windows. Since you're suggesting to do that, I have nothing to loose to just do it again.
I hope that fixes it. I'll report back
Thanks for your reply!

 

[v_sammie]

I suspect it won't help. I think permissions are at a higher level, so you might need to clean install to fix it.

I reinstalled windows. The problem persists Any ideas?

 

[USAFRet]

I reinstalled windows. The problem persists Any ideas?

If you did an actual full wipe and reinstall of the OS, from valid media, it can't do that.
A new install carries zero permissions issues (or anything else) from the old install.

 

[v_sammie]

But I did. The drive was formatted and I reinstalled Windows.
The only thing that's the same is my other drives.
Some things which I can think of, that link my C drive to the others:

• Programs or games installed on D drive, which create settings on the C drive when ran
• I changed my Documents, Music, Videos and Pictures location in the quick access bar to point toward folders in the D drive
• Firefox was installed from an installer file which was located on D drive, but if I now check the installed .exe of Firefox on my C drive, it's owner is my new computer name, so that's good.

 

[USAFRet]

1. Yes, some games/applications write some data to the C, even if installed on the D.
2. Change them back and see what happens
3. Did you do this OS install with other drives connected?

 

[Colif]

Could it be they are using the same username/password and it might have synced settings from cloud?
I assume you took ownership of the folders on other drives before installing apps?

 

[USAFRet]

Could it be they are using the same username/password and it might have synced settings from cloud?

Yes, that could easily be it.

And if this is a child account of some other...

 

[Colif]

if that is case, they could make a local user and maybe it wouldn't have same problems, as the permissions should only apply to that user

try making a local user - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au...-create-a-local-user-or-administrator-account
make it admin

Now since its a new install, just login to new user and see if it fixed it. I would normally get you to copy old user folder onto new but its only a few hours old right now.

 

[v_sammie]

Could it be they are using the same username/password and it might have synced settings from cloud?
I assume you took ownership of the folders on other drives before installing apps?

I created an offline windows account.
I did not take ownership yet, I have issues installing a program on the C drive, so that has nothing to do with my D drive in this case

 

[Colif]

local account with admin rights?
that should work, its how i ran for years...

Did you do this OS install with other drives connected?

this should have any effect as installer doesn't look at other drives during install (except maybe to look for a boot partition to add itself to)

where is the installer located for the programs on C? If C, i got nothing.. but if D, you still need to own folder its in... probably.

 

[v_sammie]

Yes, local account with admin rights.
The installer is located on C. I really don't get it :/

 

[Colif]

Did you only have ssd attached when you installed? It shouldn't make any difference but who can tell.

Only time I ever had something similar was 5 years ago when WIn 10 was 1st released and Onedrive had more access to my PC than I did. Alas the fix then was to set up a Homegroup, something you cannot do now that Microsoft removed the feature. So perhaps its Onedrive again?

 

[v_sammie]

No the other drives were also connected during windows install.
I don't use Onedrive.

This is really annoying me :/ I have so many programs that don't function correctly unless run as administrator and if I run them as administrator, windows refuses to run those programs when I place them in the startup list (so they run when windows starts)

 

[v_sammie]

I tried fully disabling UAC by setting the registry key 'EnableLUA' to 0.
This fixes the issue, which can probably help us further to narrow down the underlying cause.
I do not want to keep UAC disabled, it is not the good solution


I also noticed that (when UAC is enabled), it does not prompt to elevate an application which clearly needs to be elevated in order to function properly
I have set the slider to 'notify me' but it doesn't do so...

 

[USAFRet]

Do you have a blank drive handy?
I would try taking your current drive out, putting in a different one, and a fresh OS install on that. Just to see if this issue follows. I don't see how it could, but just to test.
(yes, I know you already did a fresh install)

 

[v_sammie]

I don't have an empty sata drive available. Can I try this on a usb flash drive?

EDIT: Is this a random idea or do really think something could be wrong with my drive?

 

[USAFRet]

I don't have an empty sata drive available. Can I try this on a usb flash drive?

EDIT: Is this a random idea or do really think something could be wrong with my drive?

No, you can't do it on a flash drive.
This is just to test your actual OS install concept.

I doubt there is anything physically wrong with the drive.

 

[Colif]

I would remove all drives except C from PC and reinstall win 10, same as before, and then see if that makes any difference. Only attach other drives once you know if it made any difference.

Its possible that it has been copying files onto the other drives during install process and maybe thats reason for this. I have to say I haven't seen it before but I haven't seen everything.