CMD Run as admin yields "Windows Cannot access Specified device, path, or file"

Question

For some reason when I run cmd as administrator This happens:

However if I run cmd normally (unprivledged) or if I disable UAC completely, command prompt pops up normally. SFC and check disk did not detect any errors

Anyone know what's going on ?

Answer 1

As booting in Safe Mode fixed the problem, this indicates that some third-party application is responsible for it.

To locate the problematic application, you may use the free tool Autoruns for Windows.

This utility shows all programs configured to run during system bootup or login in its "Everything" tab. You may turn off startup items with a click and return them later with another click. You may avoid listing Microsoft products by using the menu Options > Hide Microsoft Entries, Hide Empty Locations and Hide Windows Entries

I would suggest turning off startup entries in bunches, drilling down to the startup program that causes this behavior. Once identified, it might have some setting that can avoid the problem, or can be left out of startup and only be invoked when required (verify that once invoked it does not add another startup entry, but such can again be disabled by Autoruns).