MSCONFIG - Access Denied Error

[Guest]

I am experiencing the same problem on two different machines. When I try to
change any of the Startup parameters via the System Configuration Utility I
get an error that says "An access denied error was erturned while attempting
to change a service. You many need to log in as an Administrator account to
make the cahnges".
- One machine is running XP Pro SP1 with all updates installed (except SP2)
- One machine is running XP Pro SP2 with all updates installed
- I have admin rights on both machines and have also signed in under a
different admin account and experienced the same results
It is my understanding that an admin should not have any restrictions.
Does anyone have any ideas of how to fix this, short of a clean install?

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Hi Kingstonsean,

If you have Zone Alarm installed, see this thread:

Cannot run msconfig - Windows and ZoneAlarmT Messages and Alerts - Zone Labs
User Forum:
http://forums.zonelabs.com/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=win_za_msgs&message.id=11471

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


I am experiencing the same problem on two different machines. When I try to
change any of the Startup parameters via the System Configuration Utility I
get an error that says "An access denied error was erturned while attempting
to change a service. You many need to log in as an Administrator account to
make the cahnges".
- One machine is running XP Pro SP1 with all updates installed (except SP2)
- One machine is running XP Pro SP2 with all updates installed
- I have admin rights on both machines and have also signed in under a
different admin account and experienced the same results
It is my understanding that an admin should not have any restrictions.
Does anyone have any ideas of how to fix this, short of a clean install?

 

[C J.]

I've been having a similar problem to the OP, and also run Zone Alarm Pro,
on a SP-2 Pro system. I tried disabling the item mentioned in the article,
and this didn't seem to prevent that message from popping up. My problem has
been occuring since shortly after doing a fresh format in August. I've done
malware scans, viral scans so I know I'm not infected. There remains a
problem with using the MSconfig utility.
Isn't there a way to restore default Administrator/User priveliges to their
original configuration?

My PC is a standalone system.