Windows 7 Pro - Administrator privelages limited

[techytroubles]

I have had issues with this Acer Aspire ever since I did a clean install of windows 7 pro. My user is an Administrator, but in order to use my payroll program that requires a certificate, I have to actually log in as Administrator. This is a personal machine, but if I stay home from work, I inevitably receive "urgent" calls with questions and I need to be able to log in to my ADP Portal. That isn't the only issue. I am currently struggling to even open the network and sharing center. I read in a microsoft forum to try going to computer management and doing some things there. I can't even get that far. I get the error: "MMC cannot open the file C:\Windows\System32\compmgmt.msc. This may be because the file does not exisst, is not an MMC console, or was created by a later version of MMC. This may also be because you do not have sufficient access rights to the file."
I am also not able to access drives via VPN or connect to a domain. I have also lost my wireless access at home (probably not related, but equally as frustrating!).
Any ideas would be of great help.

 

[DelJo63]

Suggest you first get control of the Admin ID.

Safe Boot using F8 - - login as the DEFAULT ADMINISTRATOR - - that may be very different than your day-to-day ID - - or maybe not.

go to Control->User Accounts and verify every account as (Admin or Limited) and (password protected or not).

Your regular login should be Limited and I created a login with Admin rights (thus able to leave ADMINISTRATOR alone).

You should enable the UAC feature which will then prompt for a user/password when necessary while running from the limited account.

IT SHOULD BE RARE that you need to login as ADMINISTRATOR.

Once that's correct, you may need to fiddle with OWNERSHIP and permissions of some critical stuff, eg the compmgmt.msc

 

[techytroubles]

My login is an Administrator and the UAC feature is enabled. I am logged in as the Default Administrator and I am still not even allowed to open user folders such as "my documents" or "application data". Is that normal?
Even as Administrator, I can't join the domain. I'm not sure whether this is a hardware issue or just Windows blocking me from using my own computer...

 

[techytroubles]

I have to make a correction, which will entirely change the scheme of this mess. In digging through my memory banks, I realized that this is an upgrade from Windows 7 Home, not a fresh install. That would explain why I have all the user related issues, etc. I apologize for the misinformation. I thougth I remembered doing a fresh install...I wish I had!

Another change..it was upgraded from Vista Home, not 7. I guess the long weekend has ruined me!

 

[DelJo63]

Ok, take steps to correct as noted above.

Create the Limited Login and give it a password. Under Services.msc, get Secondary Login autostarted.

Do you know/have you every changed NTFS permissions or taken Ownership of a directory?