I'm a relatively new user to any workstation version of Windows beyond XP Pro SP3 or any server version of Windows beyond Windows Server 2003.
I see to have run into a serious problem regards to installing software over the top of pre-installed software, or copying files into directories already in place (in certain locations on the drive; not all locations are impacted), or uninstalling software (a footprint is almost always left behind, with certain directories and/or files left uninstalled), or trying to manually delete files or directories (in certain locations on the disk). I never had this problem on XP or on Windows Server 2003. I've used Windows 7 a little and Windows Server 2008 R2 a little. I don't remember having this problem on those systems (I might have and just don't remember). But I absolutely am having this problem on the brand new Windows 8 Pro laptop I bought from Dell within the past month and have just started getting it configured the way I want it. I also have a test environment in place and I have the exact same problem on Windows 2012 Server.
For example, the Windows programming language I use is Winbatch from Wilson WindowWare. When I install it, it installs into a Winbatch directory, immediately below C:\Program Files (x86). Winbatch comes with its own GUI-based IDE (integrated development environment, called Winbatch Studio). When I use that environment to create a program and then I try to save the source code, it wants to save it (by default) into the C:\Program Files (x86)\Winbatch\System directory. But every time I try to save to that directory, Windows pops up an "Access Denied" dialog box. If I save the file into an alternate directory and then do a "Run As Administrator" to run the Command Line box (cmd.exe) and then try to copy the finished file into the C:\Program Files (x86)\Winbatch\System directory using the copy command, I get another "Access Denied."
Now I've been doing this a long time (I've been in IT 31 years), so yes, I've checked all the simple things that I would check if this was happening on an XP system or on a Server 2003 system. I've verified my accounts "effective rights" for these directories and files and, as a member of the Administrators group, I have full control. But as to being able to do things to the files and directories, in actual fact I seem to only have read access.
So, I went looking through the security settings in the local security policy, especially those that have to do with UAC (knowing that UAC has caused problems in the past for me, with regards to apps that are not UAC aware). And I found one, dealing with something called UIAccess, that mentioned certain specific directory trees (the locations where I had been having my problems). Not knowing what exactly UIAccess is or how it works (or what these specific policy settings were for), I decided to completely disabled UAC in its entirety. After doing so, all my file and directory problems vanished and directories (and files) that should have been deleted during the uninstall process (but weren't) when I tried to uninstall an application were now gone. They had finally been deleted.
So, obviously this problem was in some way related to UAC (probably UIAccess), but I don't want to leave UAC disabled permanently. So, I need to understand what was happening and how to disable that particular functionality without completely disabling UAC.
Can anyone provide a complete and easy to understand explanation of what was going on, why it was happening, and how to correct it (short of permanently disabling UAC completely)?
Other recent topics
