UAC: Windows does not display Yes button or password field

Question

Related issues, not a duplicate of:

• "Yes" is disabled in Windows 10 elevation dialog
• Automate UAC to not prompt for admin user/pass when app needs "run as administrator"
• UAC elevation prompt doesn't show password prompt. Why?
• How do I enable pressing "y" for the UAC prompt? Only arrow keys work

Problem

When trying to elevate a program to run as administrator, the Yes button is not displayed, and I cannot enter the administrator password to continue.

The only message that is appeared:

To continue, enter an admin user name and password.
There is only a No button.

Why isn't a Yes button displayed?

Additional information

The machine has two user accounts:

1. The main user account (I would like this to have limited permissions)
2. The built-in administrator account, having elevated permissions

I would like to use the limited main user account with limited permissions, and type out the Administrator account's password when a program requires elevated permissions.

Answer 1

Solution

This is caused when the current user does not have Administrator permissions, and Windows is not finding another account where the following requirements are met:

1. The account should be in the Administrators group
2. The account should be active
3. The account should NOT be hidden/special

If any of the above requirements aren't met, Windows will not display the password field.

Option 1 – using the current account

Using safemode or other means (e.g. replacing sethc.exe to a copy of cmd.exe) you can add the current user to the Administrators group. This will allow you to type out your password (and/or press "Yes") using your current account credentials, when a UAC prompt appears.

Option 2 – using another elevated account

When using an account that has sufficient permissions (e.g. using the above method first), you can assign correct permissions to another account for the purpose of using it when elevated permissions are required.

1. Open lusrmgr.msc → Users
2. Choose an existing account (e.g. Administrator, or create a new one (Action → New User)
3. Open Properties for that user
4. Make sure the "Account is disabled" checkbox is unchecked
5. (Optional) Also uncheck "User cannot change password", and check "Password never expires"
6. Make sure the user is a member of the following groups:
   • Administrators
   • Users
7. Open REGEDIT.EXE and navigate to the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
   Make sure a DWORD key with the same name of the user (e.g. Administrator) doesn't exist, or if it does, the value isn't set to 0. (e.g. the value should be set to 1).

Option 3 – using the run as dialog

This option only works if you are confident that a privileged account with the correct username and password combination does exist on the machine, but Windows is refusing to display the password field in the UAC dialog.

This usually can happen if the privileged user does have correct permissions, but is not visible (e.g. the step 7 of the above option is not met).

In order to run a process (such as cmd.exe) as another user, follow these steps:

1. Follow a shortcut by right click → Open file location
2. Hold Shift and Right-click on the executable
3. Hold Shift and click Run as different user
4. Enter credentials for the other user, hit Ok

This will allow you to run the executable as the other, privileged account (which also allow you to follow the option 2 within the elevated window).