All Administrator Accounts have been changed to Standard Accounts

Hello All,
I recently started getting access denied errors to basic folders like
MyDocuments/My Pictures.

After some digging I realized that ALL my account, which were
Administrators, have been changed to Standard Accounts but they still show as
Administrator accounts at the login - but in Control Panel / Accounts they
say Standard.

I enabled the System Administrator account at the command prompt and I can
work from that - however even in the system administrator account I cannot
change the 'standard users' back to administrator.

1. I assume some major corruption happend
OR
2. A virus got to me?

I checked the event viewer to see if anything happend but can't decipher
anything major that went on.

Questions:
1. How would this happen (I've seen many posts where this has occurred) -
what's the root to this problem.

2. If you disable UAC does that change everyone to Standard? That would be
silly but it could be.

3. Dang - this sucks - but rock on Vista!

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I do not need a fix other than how to change stuff back so I don't have to
go moving a ton of files around.

Thanks Much!
Nicole

It seems to be pretty common that turning off UAC and doing other things to
make Vista more XP-like can lead to some pretty strange issues. I have no
idea whether or not seeing all of your admin accounts become standard
accounts is related to that.

You said that you can't change them back to admin status from the built-in
admin account, but you didn't specify whether or not you could create another
(new) admin account.

I was also curious as to whether or not you have used the group policy
editor on this system.

I'll try to be helpful, but don't get your hopes up. I'm more curious than
bright.



"NDanielle" wrote:

> Hello All,
> I recently started getting access denied errors to basic folders like
> MyDocuments/My Pictures.
>
> After some digging I realized that ALL my account, which were
> Administrators, have been changed to Standard Accounts but they still show as
> Administrator accounts at the login - but in Control Panel / Accounts they
> say Standard.
>
> I enabled the System Administrator account at the command prompt and I can
> work from that - however even in the system administrator account I cannot
> change the 'standard users' back to administrator.
>
> 1. I assume some major corruption happend
> OR
> 2. A virus got to me?
>
> I checked the event viewer to see if anything happend but can't decipher
> anything major that went on.
>
> Questions:
> 1. How would this happen (I've seen many posts where this has occurred) -
> what's the root to this problem.
>
> 2. If you disable UAC does that change everyone to Standard? That would be
> silly but it could be.
>
> 3. Dang - this sucks - but rock on Vista!
>
> Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
>
> I do not need a fix other than how to change stuff back so I don't have to
> go moving a ton of files around.
>
> Thanks Much!
> Nicole
>

Yes - I enabled the System Administrator account at the command prompt and
working from that. I didn't try to create another Admin account - I'll try
that - good t-shooting idea LeftFoot!

PS - you are bright.



"LeftFoot" wrote:

> It seems to be pretty common that turning off UAC and doing other things to
> make Vista more XP-like can lead to some pretty strange issues. I have no
> idea whether or not seeing all of your admin accounts become standard
> accounts is related to that.
>
> You said that you can't change them back to admin status from the built-in
> admin account, but you didn't specify whether or not you could create another
> (new) admin account.
>
> I was also curious as to whether or not you have used the group policy
> editor on this system.
>
> I'll try to be helpful, but don't get your hopes up. I'm more curious than
> bright.
>
>
>
> "NDanielle" wrote:
>
> > Hello All,
> > I recently started getting access denied errors to basic folders like
> > MyDocuments/My Pictures.
> >
> > After some digging I realized that ALL my account, which were
> > Administrators, have been changed to Standard Accounts but they still show as
> > Administrator accounts at the login - but in Control Panel / Accounts they
> > say Standard.
> >
> > I enabled the System Administrator account at the command prompt and I can
> > work from that - however even in the system administrator account I cannot
> > change the 'standard users' back to administrator.
> >
> > 1. I assume some major corruption happend
> > OR
> > 2. A virus got to me?
> >
> > I checked the event viewer to see if anything happend but can't decipher
> > anything major that went on.
> >
> > Questions:
> > 1. How would this happen (I've seen many posts where this has occurred) -
> > what's the root to this problem.
> >
> > 2. If you disable UAC does that change everyone to Standard? That would be
> > silly but it could be.
> >
> > 3. Dang - this sucks - but rock on Vista!
> >
> > Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > I do not need a fix other than how to change stuff back so I don't have to
> > go moving a ton of files around.
> >
> > Thanks Much!
> > Nicole
> >