Cannot disable UAC, the button does not do anything

B

Bacterius

Member
Hello,
all right, I'm on Vista x64 Home Premium (SP1), and I have a problem. When my laptop got shipped with Vista, I disabled UAC on the spot because of various software incompatibility. Recently I have been led to enable it again because of some failing software. It didn't solve the problem and thus I decided to disable it again.

However, this time, when I go on to User Accounts and I click on the "Turn User Account Control (UAC) on or off", it brings up the popup that asks me whether I want to proceed. I click "Yes", expecting the dialog box to show up so that I can successfully disable the UAC. But the dialog box never came up. The UAC popup just closed and the computer remained motionless. I tried rebooting, and manually deactivating UAC using command-line prompts which yielded "Access Denied".

And now, I cannot use my computer effectively, as most of my software is uncompatible with UAC and fails to run.

Is there any way to fix this ? I only have one account that is being marked as Administrator, and it seems quite strange that I can't set UAC back off again. Google search didn't help me a lot either - most links only tell me how to actually disable it, which fails on my system.

Hopefully I will find the solution on the Vista Forums ...
Thank you in advance.

PS : also, if this matters, although I doubt it, here is my system configuration :

- Dell Inspiron 1545
- 1.8 GHz Intel Celeron T3000 Dual Core
- 4 Gb of RAM
- ~200 Gb HD, + 250 Gb External HD
- Intel GMA for Mobile
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

Welcome

Sounds like a corrupt user account.

Try this
In search type cmd, then hit enter, then run as administrator
In the CMD prompt type the letters sfc /scannow. If errors are found run several time.

No success, open another adminstrator account and see if it works any better. If it does, I suggest giving permissions for your programs to the new account, tranfer your setting, favorites etc (using Windows Easy Transfer) and then delete the old account.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
Thank you,
I ran cmd.exe as an administrator and ran the system check. The results are (this is a translation from my language, so it might not match exactly ...) :

Windows Resource Protection found damaged files, but couldn't fix all of them. Details can be found in the CBS.log diary.

Should I create a new account or is it possible to fix the actual one without too much worries ? Or maybe I should try the UAC disabling again, perhaps Windows succeeded in repairing most of the corrupted files ? [Edit : it still fails]
 

My Computer

System One

If you do not have a Vista DVD and the problem did not happen too long ago, a system restore may do the trick.

If system restore does not work, it may be easier to see how a new acccount works.

You may want to run the sfc several times. Sometimes it needs more than one run.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
Fortunately, my anti-virus updated this morning and so I got a restore point hours before enabling UAC. I will try to restore it and see how it goes. I'm off to dinner now so I'll be back in an hour or so. Thank you again for your help.
 

My Computer

System One

Ah, well, the system restore went unusually quickly. And fortunately, UAC was disable at this time. So I have my UAC disabled again (although I can't enable/disable it anymore, the button just does nothing). So all is good right now, although I'll have to consider recreating a new account and deleting the somewhat damaged one that I have now.

Thank you for help, again. I appreciate it.

Bye.
 

My Computer

System One

I will be gone for at least a few hours. Any questions, just post. I will answer when I see them or one of the many capable forum members will help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
I turn off UAC and then go to regedit HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENT VERSION\POLICIES\SYSTEM
Set consent prompt behavior Admin to 0 default is 2
This will give one reminder that UAC is off when you restart and you will get no more warnings.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo Thinkpad T400
    CPU
    Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
    Motherboard
    LENOVO 64734VM
    Memory
    2.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 531MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Mobile Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family
    Sound Card
    Conexant 20561 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15 inch
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 800
    Hard Drives
    1x 180GB Intel 530 series SSD 1 x 120GB Hitachi 5400rmp 1 x 650GB Western Digital Elements 5400rpm 1x 1Tb Western Digital Elements 5400rpm
    Internet Speed
    Medium for New Zealand
    Other Info
    Weakest part of my computer is the graphics chipset. Only ever used a laptop. Also use USB Freeview TV Card Lenovo Docking Station External Speakers Other bits a pieces as needed
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