Vista - Admin account can't access control panel?

I have two user accounts on Vista Home Pro.
One is a standard, limited user account (password protected) and the other
is my admin account (obviously with admin privileges and password
protected).

I am not sure when this started happening but I am unable to launch control
panel under my admin account.
I get a pop-up of "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or
file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item".
The title bar of this pop-up has "::{26EE0668-A00A-44D7-9371-BEB064C98683}"

What I can do is launch control panel from my standard/limited user account
and, when prompted, enter the admin password.

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Walter

Have you made any changes to your computer? Specifically, have you made any
registry modifications? The title you have on the window is the internal
class ID for the Control Panel.

A couple of options you can try are:
1. Open the Control Panel using your limited user account. Does that work?
Every Control Panel item that requires elevation will prompt for it.
2. Use System Restore to restore the computer to an original working state?
You can try to get there by opening a command prompt and typing rstrui.exe.
You should do that after having booted into safe mode. Restore to a previous
restore point that you know worked.
---
Your question may already be answered in Windows Vista Security:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047...otectyourwi-20


"Walter Cohen" wrote:

No I haven't made any registry changes, at least none that I would
specifically edit the registry. I've only installed/uninstalled name-brand
software. I can't pin down exactly when it stopped working (that's the
problem).

1) I can only get to CP from my limited account. Then I am prompted to
enter the Admin account's password. This is an annoying way to access CP
but at least it works.
2) I can certainly launch System Restore from my limited account but again I
don't know how far back to go. Also, I can change my limited account type
to an Admin account type if needed.

I'm looking for specific things to do to get CP working again under my Admin
account.

Thanks,
Walter
"Jesper" <Jesper@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:F5051C88-3CE1-4603-85BD-2AE3A0F10951@xxxxxx

Based on the information given, this must be related to corruption of your
admin account. Try to create a new admin account (just temporarily) and see
if it works there. If that works, log on with the new account and rename the
profile for the old one. It is in c:\users\<name of the account>. Just rename
it to .old. The computer will re-create it when you log on again. That should
make it work again, but the cost of it is that all the settings you made
under the old admin account are now lost. The data is still there, so any
files you can copy back over from the old profile.

Something must have caused this. The two typical culprits are malware and
overzealous anti-malware programs. Do you have any anti-malware programs? If
so, which? Make sure it is up to date and run a scan.
---
Your question may already be answered in Windows Vista Security:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047...otectyourwi-20


"Walter Cohen" wrote:

"but the cost of it is that all the settings you made under the old admin
account are now lost"

Specifically, what settings are included? I don't believe I made [m]any
changes but I want to be sure what my potential losses might be before
renaming. Also, "rename" is not an option for the profile folder when I
right-click on it...

Thanks,
Walter

"Jesper" <Jesper@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:37980704-7FA6-4C5F-A394-9B69032A2F78@xxxxxx

You would lose any customization, such as of the start menu and anything that
was unique to the account.

You cannot rename the profile folder. Its name is managed by the system.
---
Your question may already be answered in Windows Vista Security:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047...otectyourwi-20


"Walter Cohen" wrote:

Ok, if I cannot rename the profile folder then how do I do what you
suggest: rename the profile for the old admin account?

Walter
On Jan 21, 12:37*am, Jesper <Jes...@xxxxxx> wrote:

Sorry. I'm not being explicit enough. You need to log on with another
administrative account, take ownership of the folder, and then you can rename
it. You cannot rename it while you are logged on with the account that it
belongs to because then it is in use by the OS.
---
Your question may already be answered in Windows Vista Security:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047...otectyourwi-20


"Wally" wrote:

Ok, I'm ready to try this today.
Hopefully this will not affect my Windows Mail that is associated with the
corrupted account.
But you say that Windows re-creates the profile again when I reboot and
log-in again so my Windows Mail should also be re-associated at that time.

Thanks.
Walter
"Jesper" <Jesper@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:F7779CF0-4693-4EB6-A91F-6DBCEB37764A@xxxxxx

Well THAT didn't work!
I created a new Admin account and before renaming the old profile even the
new account can't launch Control Panel!
Now I'm really baffled (and worried).

Walter
"Walter Cohen" <w_cohen@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23aVcEuPYIHA.5984@xxxxxx