I've booted into safe mode, and while there (in command prompt) I used the
"net users administrator /access:yes" command to activate the admin account.
But when I logged into that account, it still had no higher priviledges. The
admin level priveleges are locked out of the C: drive because it is set to
DENY members of USERS Group. The problem with the admin account, and my
other admin account, I think, is that they are members of both the admin
group AND the users group. According to MS, if the permissions is set to
DENY a group, and access is attempted by an account who is a member of more
than one group, then the security feature favors the deny function if one of
the account's group membership is in a DENY category. The problem was that
when I set this, I didn't realize that my original ADMIN account (of the
Administrators group) was also a member of the Users group. As such, I can't
access CMD as admin, I can't access secpol.msc at all. I tried to TAKEOWN
command under safe mode as built-in administrator account, but the system
still said access denied. What I need is a utility that will allow me to
reset the C: drive permissions without working under vista's security
feature. I know this is next to impossible in NTFS, but there must be
something out there...
So, from one screwed IT Tech Support guy to another,
HELP PLEASE!!!
~Jason
Ronnie Vernon MVP said:
Jason
Follow Shawn's advice to boot into Safe Mode. If there are no other
administrator accounts on the system, you will see the Built-in
administrator account (Named: Administrator) on the login screen. There
should not be a password assign3ed to this account.
Log on with this built-in account, go to Control Panel/User Accounts. Select
Manage another account, click the account you use and then select the Change
account type option. Select Administrator and click the Change account type
button.
Reboot and log in with the account you changed. You should now have your
admin privileges.
--
Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User
Jason said:
I was setting up other user accounts on my vista laptop to share with
family
members. Because I am the administrator/owner, I set security rights for
C:
Drive to actively deny [DENY] everyone in users group, but not for admin
group. However, it turns out that my account is ALSO a member of users,
not
just admin. So now I can't access C: Drive either. I've tried restoring
to
earlier settings, but it doesn't make a difference. I can't even access
the
secpol.msc file on the hard drive to change settings. I've tried to
activate
the built-in admin account to rectify this, but I can't even get the
account
to activate. I need some good advice besides just reseting HD to original
factory settings.
Thanks,
~Jason
