Vista Admin Privileges appear to be load

[Richard]

I am running Vista Ultimate on a Dell XPS laptop. I appear to have lost admin
privileges (my own PC, no other accounts). Any functions with the little
shield next to them appear to be disabled. For instance I can change the
picture associated with my account by not the name, cannot administer other
accounts and cannot turn off UAC.

Everything has been OK for a few months but then I have had a series of
issues that may/may not be connected.

Firstly Apple Sotware updated stopped being able to auto update software. It
would alert me but on deciding to proceed with the download the program just
returned me to the available update screen. I could download and install the
software by hand and iTunes is not mission critical so it was no big deal.

Then Windows Update started having issues. I get notified of updates and
once I ask it to install it comes back immediately with an obscure error code
which does not come up with a failed update message and error code 800401E4.
Can't get anything useful from Google and MS Support (free for service pack 1
which I suspect may have been behind the issue) have been of no use. They
have tried renaming some of the software download directories (catroot? and
one other) which seemed to force Windows Update to reevaluate what was
installed but still gave the same issue once you try to install a patch.

I have managed on at least 1 occaision to download an update and install
manually. I am also pretty sure that on at least one occaision it downloaded
a critical update automagically overnight and installed itself.

In recent days I have noticed a couple of other issues which may/may not be
connected. I think it may be down to my user account losing admin rights and
I am not sure if this is behind the WU issues. I am unable to create a new
user or change my account name or any of the functions with the little shield
next to them. I am also unable to change the auto update settings to for
instance download and install automagically when I am actually at the PC.
Clicking on any of these items does absolutely nothing - no
error/warning/attempted screen display.

I am not sure if these two things are related but would obviously love to
get some help fixing either/both of them.

Regards

 

[Mr. Arnold]

What happens if you use this account? It always has full admin rights.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...idden-administrator-account-on-windows-vista/

If nothing else, you can use it to delete your other user/admin account.
<smile>

 

[FromTheRafters]

When no administrator permissions are available to the user
Vista is supposed to activate the hidden administrator and to
make it available in safe mode. Use this account to create
a new account for your general use. Even better, create two
(one admin and one standard user) and use the standard user
one so this doesn't happen again.

 

[Richard]

Brilliant. Thanks very much for this, I have been struggling for weeks. MS
Support could provide no answers.

If I log on as the Administrator then I can install the downloaded updates.

I would very much like to get the admin rights back on my own account - is
this possible?

 

[Mr. Arnold]

Brilliant. Thanks very much for this, I have been struggling for weeks. MS
Support could provide no answers.

If I log on as the Administrator then I can install the downloaded
updates.

I would very much like to get the admin rights back on my own account - is
this possible?

I don't konw let me know if you can get your old user/admin account to work.

 

[Mike]

You might try loggin on as administrator and in Control Panel - Users
Accounts and "Manage Another Account", see if your account is an
"Administrator". If not change it. Another solution could be:
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/09/04/739820.aspx which resets
permissions to original Vista setup.