How could Windows 7 permission level suddenly change?

C

Coldblackice

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 14, 2010
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I'm seeing strange behavior on a W7 installation I've been using for years --


All of a sudden, it's like the machine has "forgotten" that I'm an administrator. I'm getting:


  • Permission warnings when trying to write to Program Files directories (which continue after I click continue, no password needed)
  • Task Manager is showing the "Show processes from all users" button (which I can't even remember the last time I've seen it there),
  • Worst of all, programs I launch aren't getting run as administrator -- I'm having to manually right-click them open as administrator, or having to modify their compatibility to do it.
That last point is what made me aware of this -- programs suddenly started acting funny, unable to see/access/view things, etc.


Any idea what caused this suddenly, or how it's happening? I haven't changed anything as far as user accounts go -- neither my account, nor added any others (I'm the only one on the machine).


It's frustrating because I have 100+ processes running, and I'm not sure which may be having issues running at reduced privileges. I've been wondering why my AHK scripts haven't been able to interact with some windows -- now I realize that it's a privilege issue!
 
Sounds like user access control is doing its job.
Click to expand...

Agreed. This is the way it has always worked for me. Before that the OP must have had UAC disabled.
 
drescherjm said:
Agreed. This is the way it has always worked for me. Before that the OP must have had UAC disabled.
Click to expand...
I was going to suggest the same thing.

OP: if you have turned off UAC prompts again and it becomes enabled by itself, check rsop.msc / security to see if there's some policy re-enabling it. Also check C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy and C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicyUsers folders for any .pol files that may be re-enabling it.
 
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