Am I an admin or not?

[GlenJohnson]

Been working with pc's for years, but this is my first vista machine. Basic hp laptop, set myself up as admin. That said, when I've tried to install certain things, it says I don't have the rights. Can't make changes to my hosts or lmhosts files, things of that nature. Ideas? Thanks.

 

[strongm]

>Am I an admin or not?

Not

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=460

 

[linney]

Built-in Administrator Account Disabled

http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsvistasecurity/archive/2006/08/27/windowsvistasecurity_.aspx

Run gpEdit.msc (As an Administrator) from an Elevated Command Prompt by right-clicking on cmd.exe and selecting the Run As Administrator option.

Go to: Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Security Settings | Local Policies | Security Options

User Account Control: Run all users including Administrators as standard users - Disable

User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt - No Prompt

 

[sggaunt]

By default users have a less than full administrative status on Vista. The so called administrator account still has less than full access. But you can fix this.
But then the onus is on you to protect the PC and its not Microsoft's fault if it goes pear shaped.
Several posts in the forum on how to get full rights.


Steve: N.M.N.F.
If something is popular, it must be wrong: Mark Twain

 

[smah]

I also do not recommend turning off UAC. To edit the hosts file (and start other apps as Administrator) you do not need to enable the Administrator account. Just right click on the command prompt to 'run as administrator'. Then start your admin tasks from that command prompt--> for example to edit the hosts file from an admin command prompt, just type notepad %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (or just notepad, then from within notepad, file, open .....)

 

[smah]

Also for further reading of why this works this way, see [google]vista least privilege[/google]

 

[GlenJohnson]

Thanks, all. Right clicked the command prompt, and it opened itself in system32, which made my life easier. Lots of good reading. To many stars to give out, but I put this in my archive. Appreciate all the quick help.