Administrator not an Administrator?

[Midnight Dream]

Ok, so here is the deal. My friends computer, having some issues with users accounts. Some things do not see the administrator as an actual administrator, or something of the sort. ATI Catalyst Control Center states that he does not have the rights to modify the settings. Another Control Panel Applet will not start, stating permission denied (of course being he does not have the needed rights)

I've tried to create a new fresh administrator account, no luck. Thoughts?

[TheCheat]

My guess is virus. I've had to fix so many computers that dont have access to msconfig, ctrl + alt + del didnt work, and you couldnt access certain administrator tools in the control panel...ect. all of them had some sort of virus.

I ended up reformating most of them because after I finally updated thier anti-virus, I'd find anywhere from 10-30 viruses.

[Midnight Dream]

Doing a virus scan now. I was looking and something seemed odd, then I realized; My friend has no sort of protection on this computer. Period. I am ashamed of him, as he knows much better.

But, to rule that out temporarily, what other thoughts on what could be causing this?

[brakezone]

If you can check in the admin tools/ computer management / users and groups/ users, double click the administrator username and see if he belongs to the administrators group (if ur allowed)

[Midnight Dream]

Yea, he is a member of (only) administrators.

[brakezone]

well, you could go into local security policy in administrator tools, local policies, and the user rights assignment. Perhaps that has been changed?

[NewbiePerson]

Try going to windows/system32/grouppolicies select everything copy and paste somewhere safe, then delete everything in that folder and log back on. It's hidden so you'll need to go under folder options and select show hidden.

[Midnight Dream]

I will try both of those options when I get home. Thank you.

[Midnight Dream]

No luck on either.

[PLOBBY]

I had some spyware on a customers computer that stopped him from opening help and support, msconfig, and stuff like that. I ran adaware/spybot. I believe it got rid of it. Then his IE wouldnt open ssh secured pages and all sorts of stuff with encryption....So i had to run 'regsvr32 jscript.dll' in run....

[Midnight Dream]

Already ran adaware/spybot, cleaned everything out. No issues with IE, just something like Catalyst Control Center wont open, stating he doesnt have the rights to change settings, and another control panel applet, the Linux IFS to mount drives (third party) wont open, stating access denied. Its not a global thing.