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Administrator Rights

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by miss_g12 2 views

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I took my computer in for repairs to a place here that actually originally broke it during a first repair. They now said they couldn't fix it (the fan), so after a bit of yelling at them, I came and got my computer as soon as they let me. I went through my files and noticed my system's date was changed to something ridiculous and set to 2007 so a lot of things weren't working like the internet. I called again to yell at them some more since I found randomly upload files. Its all in command so I have no idea what it says but I saved them. They said it was just their computer check system they use and they have no idea why my date would be changed. Needless to say I`m furious by this point and go about fixing my computer. I thought all was well until I tried saying something in my program files folder. well well. Even though under the accounts it says im the administrator, I have no administrator rights. I am in university and have so much stuff on my computer I do not want to reformat it and deal with putting everything back on. Please help! and if anyone wants to see the document files from whatever commands they ran, I still have them. (The computer is a windows vista)

6 replies

by robo_dev

What specifically are you trying to do?

Windows Vista has a feature called user-access-control which can stop things like writing data to the program files folder. Are you trying to install a new application? If so, when you launch the install routine, right click and choose 'run as administrator'.

Computer repair techs are only human, and am not sure yelling at them is the best strategy.

Your system time may be off if your CMOS battery is weak, and by simply leaving it unplugged (like during the time spent transporting it back home) the system clock stopped. That's nothing they did, you may just need a new battery (the little coin-sized battery on the system board).

Is this a laptop or desktop?

by miss_g12

It is a laptop and I can yell at them because it`s been numerous times that I, a family member or a friend have brought our computers there to be fixed or cleaned only to bring home a computer with multiple problems. Its a scam place which I will never bring my stuff back to them again. I wish I had taken it to a big box store tech department in the first place. I first noticed this issue when I tried to update a program. Java to be specific. When ever I download a program I always create a file in my program files to keep organize. Now all I can do is save stuff under my account in documents, pictures, etc. As for the date and time mishap, I can understand if it was a day or two off however it was about 5 years off with a completely random day and time. I can only imagine what spyware they uploaded to my computer

by deadly ernest

- a Live CD to inspect the drives with Linux,
- copy the data to an external drive
- format and rebuild the system
- create a separate data partition
- copy the data back to the data partition
- never go near that store again.

by slayer_

I agree
Put your data on an external drive or copy to another computer and rebuild the system, or have the university do it if they provided the computer.

by robo_dev

If the CMOS battery goes bad, the time goes to a default date which used to be 1980, but today it's typcially 2005 or 2007.

Vista user-access-control won't let you save files to program files directory unless you turn off UAC. UAC is a feature to prevent viruses and malware from changing your programs....even for the administrator.

Vista has default NTFS rules that don't allow you to write to the Program Files folder. That is why they invented the new hidden "Program Data" folder, for that reason. When you are runing a program with normal privelages (even though your are an Admin, you are not elevated by default) and that program tries to write to Program Files, vista does some clever trickery and writes it to Program Data.

This is all in the name of security, and to be honest if you curcumvent this protection, you are making your PC more vulnerable to viruses.

If you turn UAC back on, you will notice that you will be allowed to save to Program Files, after agreeing to the warning prompts. With UAC off, Vista can't elevate the permissions, and you can't

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