I have a problem machine... and I keep trying to get vista to work... but after getting an install to appear to be stable... It crashed during install after specifying user pic, name, password and computer name... when it came back up, it resumed at the select user screen, but the previous user already existed... so I created user2, password, pic, computer name and this time it succeeded. However, user1 was not an administrator... and when logging off user1 to try and find the administrator or try user2... the system crashed and now, the bootsect is messed up so I've lost my original XP (on another partition) and must boot to CD but don't hit any key - then it defaults to HD and comes up to Vista... User2 is an administrator... but when I tried to run cmd (to run defrag or bootsect) it says - run as an administrator... so I open explorer, navigate to windows\system32 and right click on cmd.exe, run as administrator - then it allows me to run defrag help and bootsect help, but when I apply bootsect /nt:60 C: - it still has a disk failure on boot up. whew... running 5600 RC1 Why, if user2 is an administrator, do programs not run as administrator? Is this priviledge issue also the problem with restoring my bootsect? Also, is there a way - in case the HDD goes kaput... - that I can boot to CD cmd prompt as administrator so I can run bootsect? Thanks, John

John, This is because you have User Account Control enabled on Vista. With UAC, an administrative user will run with 2 access tokens at all times only using the administrative token for adminstrative tasks. The rest of the time your "admin" user is using a standard user token. This is by design (and designed well, by the way). To answer your question, if you are booting to a CD, then that would be before the OS has loaded, therefore you would not need to "run as an admin." You can always perform a run as at the command line with this syntax: runas /user:[administrativeusername] [application] When you hit enter, you will be prompted for the password of the user that is designated in the command above. Hope this helps! -Ben

How do I run my regular everyday programs without having to answer the confirm message box? I disabled UAC (although I understand and agree with the premise of it) because any program I ran .. well, most programs I'd run (I think IE ran without asking permission).. I'd get a prompt asking for confirmation that I want to run that program. Which, from a usability point of view, a hassle. Thanks, John

Disabling UAC risks your computer for allowing some worms to execute commands secretly without a prompt confirmation from end user. You can Run any program as Administrator by just right click it and select Run As Administrator (option with security shield). Easy! Good luck

Enabling UAC risks me throwing my computer out the window from frustration with a poorly designed and horribly executed security model. I tried in vain for half an hour trying to set permissions on a conf file in a program directory I INSTALLED MYSELF. Nothing doing. Then I ran CMD as administrator and edited the file with no problems. Secure? Only if you're using the GUI. Vista is garbage and I'll be upgrading to XP as soon as possible.

I have found a great way to do this :http://huddledmasses.org/vista-setuid-how-to-elevate-without-prompting/Create a task with mmc and it will run without prompting HTHLaurent

I'll take the worms and viurses over UAC asking me thirteen times whether or not I want to do something. The UAC concept is so stupid it can't even tell between SOMEONE TYPING ON A KEYBOARD and a virus executing.