XP Home won't recognize me as the Administrator

[Dave]

My home PC suddenly will not recognize me as the
Administrator and I can't access certain files or programs
now. I checked my ID and it shows me having admin
rights. I also tried creating a new account giving that
one Admin rights, but no luck. I read somewhere the only
fix for this is a re-install of XP after a HD reformat.
There's got to be a better solution?? Any help would be
great.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Please define "Will not recognize me as the administrator." What symptoms
are you experiencing, what error messages and what functions?

 

[Dave]

I'm trying to download updates for some software and
before it downloads, we get a message (and I don't have it
in front of me) like 'Unable to initiate download, please
log-in to an account with administrator rights.' I have
only one account set-up on my PC and confirmed I have
administrator rights. Everyone else I've talked to today
advised my profile has become corrupt and it is a known
issue in XP and there is no fix, but I have a hard time
believing that.

Thanks for your help,
Dave

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

It is possible that your profile has become corrupted but before you make
adjustments in that regard, check any security software you are running, any
firewalls including the XP firewall which might be blocking the downloads.
If you have any such software, even antivirus software, try turning the
applications off one by one, than retry the download. If after turning off
one of the applications or some item within the application you are then
able to download the file, you will have found the offending applications
and will then need to make adjustments in its settings to allow for the
download.

 

[Dave]

Thanks for your reply. I'll try your suggestions and post
back my results.

Thanks again,
Dave

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

You're welcome, good luck.

 

[Dave]

I found the problem...the software i installed was not
allowing Windows to automatically identify me as the Admin
in the registry. I was able to fix it.

On a side note, I'm displeased with the number of spam
emails I've received since I posted here...never will I
post a valid email address here again.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Thanks for the information, Dave.

Veteran newsgroup posters are aware of the spam attacks. You are posting
from the Web, those of us who post directly to the NNTP groups using a
newsreader munge our e-mail address in our properties.

The spammers use automated bots to collect whatever they can from the
properties of the posts, especially e-mail addresses. Valid e-mail
addresses are like gold to the spammers.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Thanks for the information, Dave.

Veteran newsgroup posters are aware of the spam attacks. You are posting
from the Web, those of us who post directly to the NNTP groups using a
newsreader munge our e-mail address in our properties.

The spammers use automated bots to collect whatever they can from the
properties of the posts, especially e-mail addresses. Valid e-mail
addresses are like gold to the spammers.