cant open .exe files unless I'm using administrator rights on Windows 10.

[morst12]

Hi all,

 

recently I installed an anti virus(Bitdefender) and afterwards I couldn't open exe files unless I clicked on run as admin beforehand, its really annoying and I cant work like that because it doesn't let me use my work place's VPN.

 

Also, I did try to uninstall the Antivirus but it still does the same problem.

 

Please help because I cant do a clean install on my pc.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Mayday793]

Have you checked to see if your user account is an administrator? Try running .exe files logged in as a different user and see if the problem persists.

Next you could try this windows thread i found:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/exe-files-can-only-be-opened-by-run-as/8aab9a07-5a3e-4099-8853-02fda5042913

[morst12]

6 minutes ago, Mayday793 said:

Have you checked to see if your user account is an administrator? Try running .exe files logged in as a different user and see if the problem persists.

Next you could try this windows thread i found:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/exe-files-can-only-be-opened-by-run-as/8aab9a07-5a3e-4099-8853-02fda5042913

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I already tried to log in as a different administrator user but it didn't work,

I also checked the windows thread that you sent me but everything was already as they suggested to change.

[Mayday793]

found another link that suggests you try this:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/why-do-i-have-to-right-click-run-as-admin-every/abebd33c-df9e-4751-9b8f-03533d50d53a
 

Try with the below mentioned steps to inherit the permissions and check if it helps.

 

1. Open the properties of the main User Profile folder where the files are located (such as Documents, Pictures, etc.). For example: if your user profile name is computer then the navigation path will be C:\Users\computer. You can open the properties of a particular folder by Right-clicking on it and select Properties from context menu.
2. Go to the Security tab and click Advanced.
3. Check the box at the bottom of this window. It is labeled "Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object" and then click Ok. - you may need to click change permissions button to get this toggle to show up

 

This does a one-time action that replaces the security on all the files/subfolders. It’s one-time, so you won’t find that box checked if you peek at it later.


This will probably solve your problem for anything that has an executable on your desktop but in the future you may have other apps youll have to change the permissions on. But try it out first and see what happens.

[morst12]

12 minutes ago, Mayday793 said:

found another link that suggests you try this:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/why-do-i-have-to-right-click-run-as-admin-every/abebd33c-df9e-4751-9b8f-03533d50d53a
 

Try with the below mentioned steps to inherit the permissions and check if it helps.

 

1. Open the properties of the main User Profile folder where the files are located (such as Documents, Pictures, etc.). For example: if your user profile name is computer then the navigation path will be C:\Users\computer. You can open the properties of a particular folder by Right-clicking on it and select Properties from context menu.
2. Go to the Security tab and click Advanced.
3. Check the box at the bottom of this window. It is labeled "Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object" and then click Ok. - you may need to click change permissions button to get this toggle to show up

 

This does a one-time action that replaces the security on all the files/subfolders. It’s one-time, so you won’t find that box checked if you peek at it later.


This will probably solve your problem for anything that has an executable on your desktop but in the future you may have other apps youll have to change the permissions on. But try it out first and see what happens.

Hi, 

It was already enabled when I checked, should I try to disable it and enable it back?

[Mayday793]

Just now, morst12 said:

Hi, 

It was already enabled when I checked, should I try to disable it and enable it back?

sure that sounds like something you can try
 

[Mayday793]

Also make sure your access says "full control" in that window as well.

[morst12]

1 minute ago, Mayday793 said:

Also make sure your access says "full control" in that window as well.

It looks like that.

[Mayday793]

the one that says modify, is that for a user? (dont need to tell me who the user is, lets try and keep your info confidential) 
This is what mine looks like:

[morst12]

3 minutes ago, Mayday793 said:

the one that says modify, is that for a user? (dont need to tell me who the user is, lets try and keep your info confidential) 
This is what mine looks like:

It says the same user as my full control user. 

[Mayday793]

thats very odd. try changing that to full control. your users should have full control over the files inside their user folder.

[Mayday793]

[morst12]

1 minute ago, morst12 said:

It says the same user as my full control user. 

And now that I look at it, It doesnt have the replace all child object permission check box, so it might be the problem 

[Mayday793]

can you change the users access to read & execute? 

[morst12]

1 minute ago, Mayday793 said:

can you change the users access to read & execute? 

The Users entry doesn't have full access and I cant edit it.

[Mayday793]

so this users setting doesnt have the edit option?

[morst12]

2 minutes ago, Mayday793 said:

so this users setting doesnt have the edit option?

No, it doesn't have. Only the other 3 have edit options.

[Mayday793]

This really seems like the problem. Your user doesnt have full control over itself (and thus cant run executables without admin privileges).....im gonna look up how to enable the system administrator account and then you can log into that and hopefully edit the users permissions 

[morst12]

4 minutes ago, Mayday793 said:

This really seems like the problem. Your user doesnt have full control over itself (and thus cant run executables without admin privileges).....im gonna look up how to enable the system administrator account and then you can log into that and hopefully edit the users permissions 

Ok, thank you very much.

[Mayday793]

https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-administrator-account-in-windows-10-5095293

Try this. enable to admin account, restart the computer , log in as admin account.  try changing the user permissions again.

 

[morst12]

15 minutes ago, Mayday793 said:

https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-administrator-account-in-windows-10-5095293

Try this. enable to admin account, restart the computer , log in as admin account.  try changing the user permissions again.

 

Hi, I tried to do it but it didn't work there as well. What I did notice was that in the administrator user I could open the .exe files like I would normally before installing the Antivirus.

[Mayday793]

So that confirms this is totally an administrative privilege issue. your user doesnt have admin rights to the user account. Which i guess is something an antivirus might activate for extra protection. So now we just have to figure out how to enable it again. Ill try and think of something else to try!

[morst12]

5 minutes ago, Mayday793 said:

So that confirms this is totally an administrative privilege issue. your user doesnt have admin rights to the user account. Which i guess is something an antivirus might activate for extra protection. So now we just have to figure out how to enable it again. Ill try and think of something else to try!

Thank you very much, and I'm sorry for the bother.

[Mayday793]

Try logging into the admin account again, then create a new user with admin privileges. then log into that account and see if that fixes it. 
If that fixes it we can simply migrate your data to a newly created user and then delete the old user that has the fucked up privileges .

[morst12]

39 minutes ago, Mayday793 said:

Try logging into the admin account again, then create a new user with admin privileges. then log into that account and see if that fixes it. 
If that fixes it we can simply migrate your data to a newly created user and then delete the old user that has the fucked up privileges .

I tried making a new user using the administrator user but it did the same as my usual user.