problem with Administrator priviledges and access

[Guest]

I'm confused about Administrator settings in Windows Vista. I'm consistently
presented with "challenges" from Vista when I attempt to perform changes with
system software and certain settings that require Administrator privilege. I
am consistently informed that Administrator privilege or access is required
to make certain changes.

But I am the administrator. That's the confusing part.

When I go into the control panel and bring up the User Accounts I am listed
as Administrator (password protected).

Can anyone give me any further details as to why Windows Vista (Ultimate
edition, by the way) is challenging me with respect to Administrator
privileges?

When I initially set up this desktop computer I made sure that I was set up
as the Administrator. That is what is so confusing about what I'm presently
experiencing.

Thanks for any and all input!

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Administrative Priviledges in Vista is a bit different from how you normally
experienced it in Windows XP or 2000. With Vista, you are instead a Standard
Administrator with more controlled priviledges, instead of having entire
root access to the entire system. Basically, its more sand boxed to reduce
the attack service by malicious code, since that was basically how such code
in XP and 2000 took advantage of the system by having root access. Certain
applications and parts of the system itself, still need to be improved to be
a bit more laxed, but its just a trade off at the moment.

 

[Dave]

Even though you are the Administrator, you don't have all of your powers all
of the time.

Here's a tutorial about UAC, and how to deal with it..
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/48893-user-account-control-uac.html?ltr=U

 

[Guest]

So is there anything that I can do at this point to improve the situation?
Do I need to contact the individual software makers, for instance?

Again, with respect to the User Accounts, I'm simply listed as
"Administrator." It doesn't say whether or not I'm a Standard Administrator
or something else...

Thanks again for any and all input!

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

The only alternative is none at all, since turning off UAC would be defeat
the purpose of protecting the operating system in the first place. In User
Accounts, its not specifically labeled as 'Standard' Administrator, but when
you create an account with it, thats really what it is.

 

[mayayana]

That's an interesting question. I'm also curious about
how one goes about disabling all limitations and running
as *real* admin. Vista seems to be copying the problematic
behavior that's starting to show up in Linux, whereby admin
("root" in Linux) is not reall admin and the settings are
deliberately made confusing. In Suse, for instance, one
can bypass the fake-root functionality but it takes some
searching to find the setting.

So far I have this:
---------------------
To turn off UAC:

1. Click Start
2. Click Control Panel
3. Click User Accounts and Family Safety
4. Click User Accounts
5. Click Turn User Account Control On or Off
6. Uncheck the checkbox
7. Click OK
---------------------

Then one would also presumably need to go through
the system granting oneself permission to access all
folders.

---------------------------
In addition, there's this tweak that allegedly sets admin
to be real admin:

1) Open the command prompt with Administrative privileges by opening the
Start Menu, typing cmd in the search box. Then press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to
open cmd with admin rights.

2) Type the following in the command prompt and then press Enter:

net user administrator /active:yes

3) reboot.