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I'm running Windows 8 Pro. My account type is of admin:

Windows 8 Account Type

And My UAC is off:

UAC

Yet, I still get errors like this:

1

and

2

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2  
So...what is your question? – francisswest Sep 6 '12 at 17:07
1  
Did you click continue? or are you saying it does not give you permanent access after clicking continue? – Moab Sep 6 '12 at 17:13
How can I have a trouble free experience? I never had such issues on Win7. – Abhishek Sha Sep 6 '12 at 17:14
@moab - Nope. Access isn't permanent. It gives me such dialogs everytime I try to access it. Such issues even with folder called as WindowsApps under Program Files. – Abhishek Sha Sep 6 '12 at 17:16
Windows 8 admin is not a true admin. MSFT has decided we are too dumb to have full access to the os. Even as an admin you need to still "take ownership" of certian files or folders to gain access. Some files (such as system files) can never have ownership taken over, without doing a huge permissions assigning per file. I did this with my windows 8, and now windows update fails! Bottom line, unless if you need IIS Server 8, dont waste your money on windows 8. It just dumbs everything down in an attempt to compete with the incompetent mac users who never touch terminal. – Frank Nov 12 '12 at 12:21

3 Answers

up vote -1 down vote accepted

I do not have windows 8 but I had the same issue with my computer. On my system you have to log in as an administrator in safe mode to access some system folders and folders by other user logins. Other users login accounts on your computer can make their folders private and prevent not only other user logins from having access, but also an administartor account from accessing them. The computer system can also prevent some files from being accessed by the user by default. If it is not extremely necessary to access these type of files, then they are better left alone. However, sometimes it is just apparent that some things need to be revised ir deleted. In this case, you have to go into safe mode (speaking about my system) and tweak the properties of any file to allow access to "administrator", which will give acces to any user with an administartor account. For files that have been marked "to make private," and ones that deny access, you must add your user login name or administrator to the list of user types or users that can access the folder, and if successful, when running in normal mode you will be able to access these folders or files. It is a bit on the complicated side and your system is no doubt a little different. However, it is soemthing that can be fixed by someone with a bit of knowledge about how user acces works for your syste. The best place to start a search would be on the microsoft help pages online.

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An administrator account in Windows 7 and below should NEVER have to enter Safe Mode to do anything! I've been running Windows 7 since it came out. My account is an admin account, and I've never had any trouble accessing anything, once UAC was turned off, that is! – geo Dec 20 '12 at 23:49
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You don't say what you're doing when this happens, but this sounds like it may be a problem you're encountering in your own code. If you try to start a child that requires elevation (marked in the .exe) using CreateProcess and you're not already elevated, it will fail. GetLastError() will report ERROR_ELEVATION_REQUIRED.

To run an .exe that requires elevation, you have to use ShellExecuteEx() if you're not already running elevated.

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In my own code? I'm not developing anything. I'm merely operating my system. I've never faced such issues on Windows 7. – Abhishek Sha Sep 7 '12 at 10:41
@AbhishekSha - You need to tell us what software you are trying to run. This isn't even in a folder you should be trying to access yourself. By default its hidden. It should not by default even give you a UAC prompt. The prompt you are getting has NOTHING to do with UAC. This sounds like a problem with the software you are using and/or your installation of Windows is corrupt. – Ramhound Sep 7 '12 at 14:48
@Ramhound - Windows Explorer! The question isn't of my motives! I know it might not be UAC, but I'm ruling out the possibility altogether and making it even more clear. Come on, a corrupt installation? Really? Everything works fine! – Abhishek Sha Sep 7 '12 at 14:55
@Ramhound - What he's trying to run is WINDOWS! The point is that access to all parts of the OS is severely restricted vs. older versions of Windows. In Windows 7 and earlier, once UAC was turned off, and assuming you had an admin account, you had the access and rights to do just about anything. For example, in Windows 7, again assuming you're an admin and UAC is off, ALL command consoles run elevated. This is not the case in Windows 8! That said, the command consoles are easy, because you can always select Run as Admin. That option isn't available in Explorer! – geo Dec 21 '12 at 0:06
@geo - Why are you repling to a comment I made 3 months ago? The author answered my question. Its not clear what is trying to access a protected folder which has nothing to do with UAC. I won't be returning to this question since its 3 months old – Ramhound Dec 21 '12 at 13:26
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If you enable and log in as the account named Administrator, everything will be elevated. It's not recommended, it's probably a bad idea, but it should work.

Edit:

The error message in the picture you posted states that the operation requires elevation. It means what it says. Even though you are a member of the administrators group on the machine, you aren't automatically running with elevated permissions all the time. This is a security feature. Windows XP for example wasn't like this. Vista and later have been.

If you elevate your command prompt and run the installer from there, or right click on the installer in Explorer and choose Run as administrator, you will start the installer with elevated permissions and it should work, or at least give you a different error message. All turning off UAC does for you is not provide you with a special prompt asking you if it's ok first. It doesn't automatically elevate everything you do. I already told you the only way I know of to do that.

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^ I'm aware of that, but I how am I even facing such issues on my account that already has admin privileges? These are the same settings on Win7. I'm not facing any problems. – Abhishek Sha Sep 7 '12 at 10:43
@AbhishekSha Because that's how the OS is designed. Being a member of the local administrators group doesn't automatically elevate everything you do. It's supposed to be like that in Windows 7 as well, but you're not seeing it there, not sure why. If you hit Win+R on your keyboard, does it say, "This task will be created with administrative privileges."? Finally, is this the RTM build of Windows 8? – Mark Allen Sep 7 '12 at 18:27
It is NOT that way in Windows 7 and earlier! Regardless of the way it was intended to work (and it's easy for me to believe that MSFT's intention and the end result are completely different), once UAC was turned off in Windows 7, any process created by a local admin was elevated. For example, as I mentioned in my comment below, all command consoles would run elevated, whether or not you chose "Run as Administrator". The way the admin local group works in Windows 8 is VERY different from previous versions of Windows. So, yes, it may be the way it's SUPPOSED to work, but it's a BIG change! – geo Dec 21 '12 at 0:18

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