Windows stopped recognizing me as Administrator

[sjnew]

I bought a computer running Windows 7 64 bit about 6 months ago and I've been using it daily without a problem, but today when I turned it on, I found that I cannot use any program that requires Administrator privileges. I have only one user account and my user info in the Control Panel shows that I am an Administrator.

Here's what happens: If I try to load a program that requires Administrator privileges or use the "Run as Administrator" option on any program, the cursor turns into a little blue rotating circle indefinitely and the program never starts.

I have not installed any updates or new software or anything like that recently. It just seemed to happen out of the blue.

Other symptoms:
The network icon on the taskbar shows a little blue circle at all times, and I can't open the Network and Sharing Center or run any troubleshooters.

I can access the internet with Google Chrome browser, but not Firefox (although later this evening Firefox is working again). My McAfee Antivirus Suite doesn't load and I can't access the McAfee control panel.

Other programs such as Photoshop and Open Office work just fine.

Here's what I tried:
I called up the command prompt and ran chkdsk. I got this message: "Access denied as you do not have sufficient priveleges. You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode."

I went to safe mode and ran chkdsk again (also chkdsk /f and chkdsk c:/r). I get this message "Chkdsk cannot run because this volume is in use by another another process." I schedule it to run on reboot which it does but doesn't solve the problem.

I ran SFC /SCANNOW in Safe Mode, but it didn't find any problems.

Downloaded Malwarebytes Antimalware. It wouldn't install or run, but it was able to install it and run it in Safe Mode. It didn't find anything.

Does anyone know what I can do to fix this issue?

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

 

[Shaun o]

Well I would say use backup and restore option of windows.
It will tell you what date the backup was made, along with the time and why.

Ie: something installing it`s self without your Knowledge.

Simply pick a restore point before it.
See if it resolves the problem.

You may loose any data that was added to your system after the restore point.
But it should fix your problem if a virus or you have been hacked.

 

[BadAsAl]

What Shaun o said.
Once you find a restore point that is ok, do some thorough virus scans, using ADWCleaner, ComboFix, Malwarebytes, Avast (boot scan) or whatever virus scans you prefer. BleepingComputer .com is a good source for most of these tools.

 

[sjnew]

Thank you both for the responses.

I went to Bleeping Computer and tried the various programs you suggested and that fixed the problem. I think TDSSKiller was the one that ultimately fixed it.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me with this.