I'm moving my Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit platform to a new computer. On the old machine, I almost never had to log on as administrator because I could perform any system-altering operation by entering the admin psswrd at the UAC prompt. At the same time, I had total control of the environment in my user account, being able to customize my desktop and start menu at will. I can't remember what I did originally on the old machine to set all that up, but I'm having problems on the new one. I managed to enable customizing my start menu (creating new folders, etc.) by making sure that any instance of "start menu" I could find on the computer was shared, but while I can delete icons from my desktop that I created, I am unable to delete any that have been put there by program installations without a UAC prompt. Right-clicking the Public folder and choosing "share with" produces only the "advanced sharing settings" dialogue and editing those settings seems to do nothing at all. Also, I don't see any relevant entries in Group Policy Editor. I need read/write privileges for that folder! I've always appreciated the security provided by UAC, but this is not a security issue. Anybody have a solution? message edited by krh
For anyone interested, it turns out that, in my case at least, the solution was "don't use Windows Easy Transfer". I had done a lot of customizing of my old platform, involving a lot of editing of permissions. WET doesn't transfer permissions and only part of those customizations, in such a way that I think I wound up with sort of a corrupted mess. Since it doesn't transfer permissions and you need to reinstall all your programs anyway, I don't think there's much point in using it. It's not difficult to re-establish accounts manually and desktop preferences by exporting theme packs. Once I started customizing my third attempt at a fresh install, this time without WET, I had no problem at all setting up the proper permissions. Folder editing now works as it should.
I never get any UAC prompt on any of my three computers.
All you need to do is properly adjust the UAC slider.Control Panel --> User Accounts --> Change UAC Settings
Pull the slider all the way down to the bottom **
Click 'OK'.
Job done.** Only do this if have you have a good third-party firewall installed (which I have, one of the strongest you can get).
message edited by phil22
As I've said, I appreciate the security provided by UAC. On my old machine, the slider is set all the way to the top, and I've never minded needing to enter a password for operations that can make changes at a system level. If you're going to basically give the user administrative privileges my moving that slider all the way down, there's really not much point in setting up a user account. All I want to do is have the ability to arrange things on my desktop and delete anything I want at any time. I know that the reason I'm presently not able to do that on the new computer is not a "security" issue, but that some of the items on "my" desktop are on the desktop in the public folder, which prevents me from making changes that would affect other users (even though I am both the administrator and the only user) . I need read/write privileges for that folder from my user account and I need to know how to get those privileges. I just can't remember how I did it originally on the old computer.
I haven't exactly solved the problem but I've isolated it somewhat. For some reason, I'm unable to enable sharing or transfer ownership for some folders, even logged in as administrator. I think that in the process of setting up the computer, I've managed to get it corrupted, and to make it ever more frustrating, I backed it up after it got screwed up. I'm beginning to see more clearly how I initially set things up on the old computer so my "solution", at this point, is to re-install windows and start over. This time, I'll be more careful and thorough in using Windows Easy Transfer and I'll make frequent backups. If I come up with a true solution, I'll probably post back here for the possible benefit of others. Thanks.
For anyone interested, it turns out that, in my case at least, the solution was "don't use Windows Easy Transfer". I had done a lot of customizing of my old platform, involving a lot of editing of permissions. WET doesn't transfer permissions and only part of those customizations, in such a way that I think I wound up with sort of a corrupted mess. Since it doesn't transfer permissions and you need to reinstall all your programs anyway, I don't think there's much point in using it. It's not difficult to re-establish accounts manually and desktop preferences by exporting theme packs. Once I started customizing my third attempt at a fresh install, this time without WET, I had no problem at all setting up the proper permissions. Folder editing now works as it should.
nice one that is good. message edited by wizzys
Ad Choices