Vista - Standard account UAC not coming on in certain situation

Hey,

Have a problem here. I have a standard account which is my main one, an administrator account and a guest account. I set all of this up today. I like the standard account because it won't let you install/remove programs or go to restricted areas without first providing a password.

When I first logged into my standard account and tried to get in other users folders I was happy to see it asking me for a password. Well, I tried it again this evening and was disheartened that UAC didn't ask me for a password. I could go into other users folders and do whatever I wanted. I restarted my computer and still, the same thing. I can still get in all of the folders. UAC still works for other things like trying to install programs or going to restricted areas of the control panel but it doesn't work for this. It did earlier. Anybody know why this is? How do I get it back to the way it was in the beginning?

I'm using Vista Home Premium SP1, BTW.

 

It didn't ask for the password initially because of UAC, it asked for an administrator account's credentials to give you permission to take ownership of those files. Because you have taken ownership, you are now permanently a co-owner of the files.

I am not sure if Home Premium has this tab removed, but (in Business/Ultimate) if you right click on the folder on your Administrator account, then click the security tab, click advanced, then click the owner tab, you should be able to remove the account. Be sure to have the sharing wizard disabled, which is a checkbox in Folder options (accessible via control panel).

 

So... you're able to write into the other user's directory from a standard user account? Which user's directory can you access -- the admin's or guest's or both?

Also, check the security settings for those users' directories. (Right-click the directory > Properties > Security tab ... and see which groups have which kinds of access... you can edit the permissions there if you need to.)

 

Scratch that. I can enter both the admin's and guest's folder and open all of their files but I can't write/save to it or delete anything.

I went back into the admin account and did the right click > properties > security thing and removed my standard account but it does the same thing I wrote about earlier. When I log back into my standard account and try to open the admin's folder it asks for the p/w the first time. After that I could go in any time I wanted and look at/open all of the files. Afterwords I logged back into admin and right clicked > properties > security and saw my standard account was put back there again.

Maybe the problem is I'm asking for something it wasn't programmed to do? I wanted it to require a password everytime I tried to access other users folders. Which it does but I would have to go back into the admin account to remove myself from the securities tab everytime to get it to ask me again...

 

Perhaps you have file sharing on in the "network and sharing center". If you have file sharing on and don't want everyone to see your things , make sure you have password protected sharing on. Or turn off file sharing. You can also edit who you want to share with.

 

hmmm... from your std user acct., how are you accessing the other users' folders? Do you just double-click the folder? Or are you doing something else?

Also... when the UAC prompt appears on the screen... what does it say you're approving?

I guess it could be that it instead of just using admin access to read the directory contents, maybe it uses the admin access to change the directory permissions. That would explain what you're seeing I think. (I used to run multiple accounts like that... I never really tried to use it to manage read access though... and I've since reinstalled the OS so unfortunately I don't have it set up right now...)

 

this is not a UAC related problem.

just set your file/folder permissions properly.