Why do I have to run most applications on Windows 10 as Administrator?

Question

I have a baffling but also seriously troublesome issue with file permissions on Windows 10 x64.

For some time now, if I try to run any application that accesses files in my profile then I need to use “Run as Administrator” to avoid permission errors that prevent the application from working.

This is baffling because my own user is an Administrator anyway and I have checked the files/folders in question and my Effective Access is Full Control.

I’m talking about files in my C:\Users\clancy\AppData folders like Local, LocalLow and Roaming.

I have tried a number of things like changing ownership of all files in C:\Users\clancy to me and also adding myself as a Full Control user to all the folders, sub folders and files but the problem remains.

I’m not entirely sure when this issue started happening but I do recall at one point changing from logging in as a standard admin user to using a Microsoft account but that may be a red herring.

This problem causes all manner of issues with apps just trying to read or write in my own profile folders so much so that I configure every shortcut on the task bar to Run as Administrator at all times.

Can anyone suggest what might be causing this and/or a way to fix it?

I am very reluctant to reinstall Windows as I have a large number of heavily personalised applications and the time to install them all again would be in the days (time off work I can’t afford).

Thanks,

-c

Answer 1

I assume that "logging in as a standard admin user" means logging in as %computername%\clancy. Create and try a new "cloud" user to see if the problems happen there, too; same with a new local admin user. But even if these work, moving your stuff to a new account is not easy.

File location virtualization may be part of your problem. If a program wants to write to a protected location, it will be redirected to your user profile and get a "permission" error at that place. Allow write access to your profile to (local) admins. (This is a bit more complicated than I can tell from memory.)

Note: when Windows NT says "access denied", it means "something went wrong, but I don't know if you are allowed to get any information about this object, so I will always act like it is a permission problem." Yes, it has been this bad since over 25 years.

Answer 2

This behavior is strange and I don't see how to analyze the case, except that it looks like a problem with Windows itself.

I suggest returning all Windows components to a known state by doing In-place Upgrade.

This operation is exactly the same as doing a Windows major update, so will keep your data, apps and almost all Windows settings.

Take the same precautions as before a Windows major update, including backups.