Administrator Permission

[francis_tzf]

I have a new Gateway desktop with Vista Home Premium. I am the only
user. I have not set up any "User Accounts". I presume that makes me
the Administrator. At c:\users there are listed three names: Default,
Francis (my name), and Public. My question: From time to time, when I
try to perform some actions (like, move or delete a folder), I am told
that I "need Administrator permission" . My question: How do I inform
Vista that I am the Administrator? Or, if I am not the Administrator,
how do I become the Administrator?Thanks. Francis

 

[Ian]

Go to control Panel/Users and go to Turn Off Account Control.



"francis_tzf" <fsinclaire@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1184273231.767678.159710@o61g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>I have a new Gateway desktop with Vista Home Premium. I am the only
> user. I have not set up any "User Accounts". I presume that makes me
> the Administrator. At c:\users there are listed three names: Default,
> Francis (my name), and Public. My question: From time to time, when I
> try to perform some actions (like, move or delete a folder), I am told
> that I "need Administrator permission" . My question: How do I inform
> Vista that I am the Administrator? Or, if I am not the Administrator,
> how do I become the Administrator?Thanks. Francis
>
>

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Hi Francis,

>I have a new Gateway desktop with Vista Home Premium. I am the only
> user. I have not set up any "User Accounts". I presume that makes me
> the Administrator.

Hmmm, not necessarily. You might be either an Administrator, or Standard
User. To check, go to Control Panel, User Accounts, "change account type".
Seect your "Francis" account in the list of users and press Properties. See
if you are administrator or Standard User. But at present you are probably
configured as an administrator.

> At c:\users there are listed three names: Default,
> Francis (my name), and Public. My question: From time to time, when I
> try to perform some actions (like, move or delete a folder), I am told
> that I "need Administrator permission" .

This is how Vista normally works. Even if you are logged in as an
administrator, you are prompted to manually confirm actions which require
administrative privileges. This is called UAC or "User Account Control". It
is to prevent viruses silently changing important settings on your machine,
without your knowledge or consent - one of the main ways viruses attack your
system. This way, you have to explicity say "yes I want to instal this
driver" or "yes I want to overwrite that file".

It is possible to tur UAC off, but it isn't recommended. You'll be losing
one of the big security advanatges of Vista.

> My question: How do I inform
> Vista that I am the Administrator? Or, if I am not the Administrator,
> how do I become the Administrator?

As above, you can change accounts back and forth between Standard User and
administror user, in Control Panel, User Accounts, account type. The safest
scenario is to keep your ordinary, day-to-day account as a Standard User
(for you, this would be the Francis account) and create a separate account
to use as administrator. If you are logged in as a Standard user and some
operation needs administrative consent, you will be prompted for the
credentials of your alternative, administative account.

There's some more background info here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/useraccountcontrol.mspx

Hope it helps,
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au

 

[NotMe]

And if you turn off the PITA UAC, things don't function properly.
Suddenly you get prompts for things you shouldn't.
If you installed programs with UAC on, the automatic updates and such will
probably cease to function.
The Programmers from AOL 4 would be proud of their MS Cousins for this
'feature'...

--
A Professional Amateur...If anyone knew it all, none of would be here!
CarGodZeroOne@hotmail.com
Change Alpha to Numeric to reply
"Andrew McLaren" <andrew@fakeaddress.com> wrote in message
news:38CFBAFB-2C04-4F84-A63D-2E005F7CCC86@microsoft.com...
> Hi Francis,
>
>>I have a new Gateway desktop with Vista Home Premium. I am the only
>> user. I have not set up any "User Accounts". I presume that makes me
>> the Administrator.
>
> Hmmm, not necessarily. You might be either an Administrator, or Standard
> User. To check, go to Control Panel, User Accounts, "change account type".
> Seect your "Francis" account in the list of users and press Properties.
> See if you are administrator or Standard User. But at present you are
> probably configured as an administrator.
>
>> At c:\users there are listed three names: Default,
>> Francis (my name), and Public. My question: From time to time, when I
>> try to perform some actions (like, move or delete a folder), I am told
>> that I "need Administrator permission" .
>
> This is how Vista normally works. Even if you are logged in as an
> administrator, you are prompted to manually confirm actions which require
> administrative privileges. This is called UAC or "User Account Control".
> It is to prevent viruses silently changing important settings on your
> machine, without your knowledge or consent - one of the main ways viruses
> attack your system. This way, you have to explicity say "yes I want to
> instal this driver" or "yes I want to overwrite that file".
>
> It is possible to tur UAC off, but it isn't recommended. You'll be losing
> one of the big security advanatges of Vista.
>
>> My question: How do I inform
>> Vista that I am the Administrator? Or, if I am not the Administrator,
>> how do I become the Administrator?
>
> As above, you can change accounts back and forth between Standard User and
> administror user, in Control Panel, User Accounts, account type. The
> safest scenario is to keep your ordinary, day-to-day account as a Standard
> User (for you, this would be the Francis account) and create a separate
> account to use as administrator. If you are logged in as a Standard user
> and some operation needs administrative consent, you will be prompted for
> the credentials of your alternative, administative account.
>
> There's some more background info here:
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/useraccountcontrol.mspx
>
> Hope it helps,
> --
> Andrew McLaren
> amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au
>

 

[francis_tzf]

Thanks to all. I guess I'll leave the UAC as is for a while, and see
how it goes. I have had the desktop computer only a couple of days,
and I suppose I owe Vista a longer introduction period than that. I
must say, though, that so far, I prefer Windows XP Pro, which is on my
laptop. I am sure that the way Vista is configured (the Start menu,
the Control Panel, folders listings, etc.) is intended to be more user-
friendly and intuitive, but it seems less so. Maybe it's just old
habits dying hard. Once again, thank you all for your input. Francis

 

[Andrew McLaren]

"francis_tzf" <fsinclaire@gmail.com> wrote ...
> Thanks to all. I guess I'll leave the UAC as is for a while, and see
> how it goes. I have had the desktop computer only a couple of days,


The UAC stuff is mostly painful in the early days because:
a) it's new and
b) this is when you're setting stuff up on your new system, and you need to
elevate to administrative privilege all the time to install/configure stuff.

Once all your apps are installed, and everything is set up and configured
the way you like, the number of prompts will be far fewer, and not as
noticable.

Good luck with the new system!
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au