Vista - UAC and can't access anything

I turned on User Account Control on another computer in my house and now I "don't have permission" to run anything. There is only the Owner account, so I'm guessing that has ADMIN rights. I have searched and even tried to do "regedit", but again get the error I don't have permission.

I know just enough about computers to really make a mess of them, so I need detailed instructions

The system I'm running is a HP Pavillion a6600f using Vista Home Premium 64bit. Intel Pentium Dual 2.2 GHz processor with 3GB of memory

I actually have 3 of these exact same machines set-up on a network in my house to play multi-player games with my boys over the internet.

What happened is on one machine the little sheild down in the bottom right hand tray had the red thing on it. I clicked on it and it brought up the security screen and it looked to me like I should check the box saying turn on UAC. I did and restarted the computer. Now I can't run any .exe programs or much else.

I did try restart the system and pressed F8 and got the screen. I tried using "Last Known Good Configuration", but that didn't work.

I called my computer guy, but he was the one who said the above. He thinks I have a virus that causes .exe programs not to work. He told me to look for a EXE FIX program. However, I just think it has more to do with me changing the UAC setting, but now I don't have permission to change it back.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Hello TMJJS,
Take a look at this tutorial and see if this helps, the registry part may be of interest to you.

User Account Control (UAC)


It may be a good idea to scan your PC for malware with this free program.

Malwarebytes.org

Good luck and post your results.

Any idea how to download the file to desktop since I can't get on the internet from that computer? I could save it to another computer and get to it, but it won't be on the desktop.

I tried the registry part, but when I right click and select Merge, I get the error message:
Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the apporiate permissions to access the item.

Can you restore your computer to a previous day?
Windows Vista System Restore Guide

Did you try the download way of doing it or the manual way ?.

I tried the download way since I have already tried the manual way and I get the same error when I type in regedit.

I have tried this as well, but I get the same "no access" error when I click on Restore.

I downloaded to another computer and then copied it over to the desktop. However, I get the "Cannot access" error when trying to merge.

The easiest way would be to use a USB memory stick, or put it on to a disk.