Lost Administrative privilages...

[ShanerB]

Hi all,

I'm having some problems with my PC, I use Vista home basic by the way. I
think its to do with administrative privilages. Basically my account is the
Administrator account but some things won't work for me. For example, if i
want to change my IE homepage i can't because the field to type in is
unclickable. At the bottom of the options page it says "Some settings are
managed by your sytem administrator". Another problem is when I try use Task
Manager, a message appears saying "Task Manager has been disabled by your
administrator". I have run scans for malware and stuff like that but nothing
has been identified. I can't remember making changes myself but I do have
younger siblings that may have in advertantly. This is a pretty annoying
problem so any help would be appreciated.

My thanks in advance,
Shane.

 

[ShanerB]

:

Shane,

Are you using the actual administrator account or a user account with
administrator access?

If you're not using the actual administrator account, try enabling it
using this tutorial:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67567-administrator-account.html

And once enabled, see if you can make changes to your system.

I hope this helps.


--
.Joe

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Hi Joe, thanks for the reply, it helped somewhat. As you assumed I wasn't
using the actual Administrator account and I have now set one up thanks to
the link you provided. Problem is that all my files are on the account I was
previously using and it would be pretty frustrating losing the access to
them. Any idea how I could transfer them to the Administrator account or if I
can gain some of the privilages of the Administrator account on my personal
account?
Also I think i found something that may be the cause of the problem. When I
was inputting the homepage for the new account I think I uncovered some
malware. anytime I enter the "www." part I am redirected to a site called
"serial99.com". it's obviously some spyware or malware but it doesn't get
detected using any scans, any idea how I might be able to locate it?

Thanks again,
Shane

 

[SG]

Shane,

What malware programs did you run to determine you where not infected?
I believe you are as I've just fixed a machine with problems you describe.
It took many hours and lots of programs and my knowledge of the Registry to
fix things. I had to eat several hours of labor, but that's OK cause I'm not
one for giving up that easily. Sometimes you can be so infected it's better
to reformat and start over, lets hope that's not your case. The problem
today and it's becoming a huge problem is Root Spyware. This new technology
for now is somewhat ahead of most Malware programs, but some are available.

A couple to help you get started....
RootAlyzer!

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

AVG Anti-Rootkit Free
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-rootkit/

You can find more doing a Google search for...
rootkit spyware removal


--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/

 

[Spirit]

Be sure to get rid of the Malware first!

http://www.computerworld.com/action...ewArticleBasic&articleId=9015738&pageNumber=2
Turning on the Administrator account is straightforward.

First, open an elevated command prompt by typing
cmd into the Search box on the Start menu, right-clicking
the command prompt icon that appears at the top of the
Start menu, then selecting Run as administrator .

Then enter this command and press Enter:

Net user administrator /active:yes

From now on, the Administrator account will appear as an
option on the Welcome screen, along with any user accounts
you may have set up. Use it like any other account. Be aware
that it won't have a password yet, so it's a good idea to set a
password for it.

If you want to disable the account and hide it, enter this
command at an elevated command prompt and press Enter:

Net user administrator /active:no

AutoLogon - Start - Search - netplwiz

Highlight User Name - Uncheck Users must enter a User Name and Password
Provide Password when prompted or hit enter if no password

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67567-administrator-account.html
How to Enable or Disable the Real Built-in Administrator Account

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67717-take-ownership-file.html
How to Take Ownership

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/112795-context-menu-take-ownership.html
How to ADD Take Ownership to the Right Click Contect Menu

 

[SG]

If you want to disable the account and hide it, enter this
command at an elevated command prompt and press Enter:

Net user administrator /active:no<<<

One thing you fail to mention. In order to do this you have to be logged out
of the administrator account and run this command from the user account.

--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/