Administrator issues Windows 7

[tutuava]

I've got an annoying little problem on my Windows 7 machine after I tried installing AVG some time ago. For some reason it decided to make everything on the desktop require administrator rights to open or basically do anything with, putting little padlocks on all the icons.

I uninstalled it and was able to undo some of the weirdness it caused, but not all. I still have issues simply creating and accessing folders, in order to have full access I have to set security -> users -> and then full control for each folder I create. Is there a way to make them fully accessible by default? I'm the only user, so there's no need for this at all.

 

[denis280]

if it was fine before avg.can you do a system restore.

 

[Steltek]

if it was fine before avg.can you do a system restore.

+1

If that doesn't fix the issue, you might try running AVG's manual remover utility for the version you were running to ensure that everything was uninstalled properly.

http://www.avg.com/us-en/utilities

 

[tutuava]

Unfortunately this was some time ago and when I thought of it I no longer had a restore point from before..

Just tried the utility and it executed but didn't change anything.

I'm sure there's a way to change a setting, when I right mouse click to create a new folder the folder icon shows with a shield next to it so as to say only admins can create and edit it.. I have the same thing showing with programs I download to desktop.

 

[mikeymikec]

I may be barking up the wrong tree here, but if you go into Control Panel > User Accounts > Change User Account Control Settings, how does the slider bar look?

 

[tutuava]

It's set to Default (recommended)..

 

[mikeymikec]

Can you do things like start Notepad a save a text file into your documents and desktop? Is UAC triggered at all?

I'm wondering about permissions at the moment.

 

[tutuava]

Yes I'm only having a problem with folders really (and execs on the desktop, but that's not really a problem for me). At first AVG put padlocks on everything on the desktop (and some other places I think, it was crazy), but I got most of that back to normal, so it's really just everytime I make a new folder I have to do it from desktop and then edit its settings so that I'm allowed to put files in it. So I can't make a folder from another program for instance. It's a little annoying because I use my desktop as a way to keep track of ongoing projects so I'm constantly making folders for new projects there.

 

[mikeymikec]

Try right-clicking on one of the problematic folders> Properties > Security and let me know what the permissions are.

 

[tutuava]

creator owner: no permissions
system: all except 'special permissions'
administrator: all
users: read, execute, list, read - but not write, modify, special, full control. <- this is the one I always check to 'full control' then it works
trusted installer: only list and special permissions

 

[mikeymikec]

If we're talking about a folder in your user profile, then your user ought to be set as having full control. Allowing 'users' access means any logged in user could potentially access that folder.

Pre Vista I would have suggested resetting permissions for your entire user folder, but that upsets a load of junction/symlink entries that are aimed at stopping idiotic applications going for semi-hard-coded file system locations.

I'm sure there's a better alternative to what I'm about to suggest, but you could create another user, then use the 'copy profile' feature in advanced system properties. I would think that would throw off any completely wrong permissions in the process but I'm not sure how good a job it does. It would be a "copy profile, back and then nuke old profile then put the new profile in the old profile's place", type job. I would only try it if no-one has a better suggestion. As it is you have a temporary workaround by setting permissions correctly where you've found them to be incorrect.