I thought I was the administrator!

[Guest]

I hope I'm posting in the right group. Recently, while attempting to change
some startup settings in the System Configuration Utility, I got an error
message which said, "An Access Denied error was returned while attempting to
change a service. You may need to log on using an Administrator account to
make the specified changes." My log-on account "is" the Administrator. I have
a Dell Dimension 4600, with 1.5GB ram, Intel Pentium4 HT 2.8MHz processor,
running Windows XP SP-2. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Ron Sheets

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Verify that you are indeed logged on as an administrator. You can use the
command net localgroup administrators as shown in the example below to view
membership of the administrators group and you should see your user account
name included under members. In XP Home the built in administrator account
is only available in Safe Mode though it can be used to add more users to
the local administrators group. --- Steve

D:\WINDOWS\system32>net localgroup administrators
Alias name administrators
Comment Administrators have complete and unrestricted access to the
compu
ter/domain

Members

 

[Guest]

Steven,

Sorry to act so goofy here, but I can find no "net localgroup
administrators" in the System32 subdirectory of Windows. At the risk of
making this a little too basic, could you show me exactly what to type in the
command line? I appreciate your help.
Ron Sheets

 

[Guest]

Steven,

Wow, my brain finally kicked on, and I understand your use of the syntax. I
am trying to decipher the information under the "administrators" list. It
appears as if my computer may be listed under a "helper services" list? I see
my login name nowhere. It's very possible that I'm not reading or calling
this information correctly at all. I'll play with it some more and see what I
can find. By the way, my login name is showing to be an administrator in the
User Accounts in Control Panel.
Ron Sheets

 

[Guest]

Okay, Steven, I finally figured out the syntax, and yes, I am listed as the
administrator. Your instructions were fine. My interpretation was a bit
skewed. Any suggestions at this point? I promise I will think before I speak.
Ron Sheets

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Are you using XP Pro or XP Home? If your user account is a member of any
local group other than administrators and users then remove it from those
groups. Are you using any software such as a spyware or antivirus program
that is locking down your computer to prevent important changes? Sometimes
such programs can do that and will also restrict the administrator account
until the protection is disabled. Otherwise malware can place restrictions
on user accounts including administrators. Running the secedit command as
shown in the link below [you can copy and paste it into a command window] on
XP Pro will often fix such problems but that will not remove the malware and
undo other damage that it may have done. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;313222

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Steve. I will check all the suggestions. By the way, I noticed this
item under Event Viewer in Computer Management (I'm running XP Home). Always
coinciding with my attempt to use msconfig (and the subsequent error msg), I
get this: "The ScRegSetValueExW call failed for Start with the following
error: Access is denied." The event ID is 7006. Again, thanks.
Ron Sheets

Are you using XP Pro or XP Home? If your user account is a member of any
local group other than administrators and users then remove it from those
groups. Are you using any software such as a spyware or antivirus program
that is locking down your computer to prevent important changes? Sometimes
such programs can do that and will also restrict the administrator account
until the protection is disabled. Otherwise malware can place restrictions
on user accounts including administrators. Running the secedit command as
shown in the link below [you can copy and paste it into a command window] on
XP Pro will often fix such problems but that will not remove the malware and
undo other damage that it may have done. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;313222

Okay, Steven, I finally figured out the syntax, and yes, I am listed as
the
administrator. Your instructions were fine. My interpretation was a bit
skewed. Any suggestions at this point? I promise I will think before I
speak.
Ron Sheets

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Unfortunately the repair options for XP Home are rather limited compared to
XP Pro. What I would try is to logon as an administrator and then use
regedit to open the registry editor. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and then
expand it and go to system. Then right click system and select permissions.
Make sure that administrators and system have full control and read and that
power users and users have read that there are no deny permissions shown for
any group. If you can not see permissions you may need to boot into Safe
Mode and try. If permissions already show what I suggest then go into the
advanced page and then select replace permissions on all child objects...
and hit apply. Reboot the computer and see if that helps. If it does not
then you may want to attempt a repair/upgrade install that will require the
Windows install disk.

I am not familiar with that Dell of yours and it may have some built in
repair option that you can also try though it may nuke everything already on
the system hard drive including your data and applications so be sure in any
case to have backups of your needed data including your user profile folder
under documents and settings to backup media such as DVD/CDROM as computers
can always be fixed or repaired but a user's data may be lost forever. If
you do a upgrade/repair install realize it will roll back your computer
configuration and you will need to first install your service pack, if not
part of the install disk, and then all needed critical security updates
after completing the upgrade/repair install. Also if you are not using a
internet router to protect your network/computer I would make sure that you
do the upgrade/repair install not connected to the internet and that the
Windows Firewall is enabled before you connect to the internet. The links
below explain more on an upgrade/repair install. Again beware that such
problems are often malware related and an upgrade/repair install will not
remove malware. --- Steve

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxpsp2/Default.mspx
--- Protect Your PC valuable tips

Thanks, Steve. I will check all the suggestions. By the way, I noticed
this
item under Event Viewer in Computer Management (I'm running XP Home).
Always
coinciding with my attempt to use msconfig (and the subsequent error msg),
I
get this: "The ScRegSetValueExW call failed for Start with the following
error: Access is denied." The event ID is 7006. Again, thanks.
Ron Sheets

Are you using XP Pro or XP Home? If your user account is a member of any
local group other than administrators and users then remove it from those
groups. Are you using any software such as a spyware or antivirus program
that is locking down your computer to prevent important changes?
Sometimes
such programs can do that and will also restrict the administrator
account
until the protection is disabled. Otherwise malware can place
restrictions
on user accounts including administrators. Running the secedit command as
shown in the link below [you can copy and paste it into a command window]
on
XP Pro will often fix such problems but that will not remove the malware
and
undo other damage that it may have done. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;313222

Okay, Steven, I finally figured out the syntax, and yes, I am listed as
the
administrator. Your instructions were fine. My interpretation was a bit
skewed. Any suggestions at this point? I promise I will think before I
speak.
Ron Sheets

:

Verify that you are indeed logged on as an administrator. You can use
the
command net localgroup administrators as shown in the example below to
view
membership of the administrators group and you should see your user
account
name included under members. In XP Home the built in administrator
account
is only available in Safe Mode though it can be used to add more users
to
the local administrators group. --- Steve

D:\WINDOWS\system32>net localgroup administrators
Alias name administrators
Comment Administrators have complete and unrestricted access to
the
compu
ter/domain

Members

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Administrator
Steve
The command completed successfully.

message
I hope I'm posting in the right group. Recently, while attempting to
change
some startup settings in the System Configuration Utility, I got an
error
message which said, "An Access Denied error was returned while
attempting
to
change a service. You may need to log on using an Administrator
account
to
make the specified changes." My log-on account "is" the
Administrator.
I
have
a Dell Dimension 4600, with 1.5GB ram, Intel Pentium4 HT 2.8MHz
processor,
running Windows XP SP-2. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in
advance.
Ron Sheets