Full Administrator Rights 5

[Novice01]

Using XP Pro, whilst trying to install Realplayer, I get the message that I don't have full Administrator rights. In fact, I'm the Administrator. I tried to re-install Realplayer in Safe mode, logged-on as Administrator, but still failed.
How do I check that I have full Administrator rights?

 

[BaudKarma]

Go to "User Accounts" in control panel and make sure your account is a member of the "Administrators" group.

Assuming that's okay, there could be other problems. The install program might be unable to write the file because your disk is full or you have a bad sector or something. It interprets that as you not having admin rights.

I try not to let my ignorance prevent me from offering a strong opinion.

 

[Novice01]

Checked as suggested, I have Administrotor rights. Plus ample hard disk space without bad sectors. Please help!

 

[SPV]

In that case, are you logged in as an account which happens to have administrator rights, or as the actual administrator account itself?

I don't have experience of the RealPlayer installer for XP Pro, but I have seen some installer routines which only work if you use the actual administrator account.


Also, there is a limit on the registry size and hitting that could cause problems for installer routines. In NT, it was set in the same place as the virtual memory (system properties, performance tab). In XP Pro it seems to be called the RSL (registry size limit) but I can't find where to check/set it.

Perhaps someone else can help us both out with that?

 

[linney]

There are a couple of suggestions you could try in this article.

"Error 1719. The Windows Installer service could not be accessed" error message when you try to add or remove a program

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315346

How to Enable Windows Installer Logging in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314852&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

If the log mentions anything about Access Denied to some file or Registry Key make sure that you are in fact listed as having the correct permission.

Sometimes cleaning out your Temp folders can help.

 

[Novice01]

Still a problem! I get the the error message that I'dont have access rights to registry. How can I check that I have access right to registry? Using 'regedit' I do have access to registy but access denied when installing Realplayer from the setup,exe file.

Thanks

 

[bcastner]

1. Download and install subinacl from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...56-d8fe-4a91-93cf-ed6985e3927b&displaylang=en

2. Create a file named reset.cmd in C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools folder.

3. Edit the reset.cmd file with the following content.

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=systems=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=system=f

4. Enter into CMD prompt.

5. Enter the following commands one at a time and click Enter.

cd\
cd "C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
reset.cmd

6. After a few minutes by processing subinacl, please test the problem again.

 

[CowboysFan87]

Are you in an Active Directory environment?

Thanks,
CBF '87

 

[Novice01]

Thanks to bcastner for the message of 26 March. It resolved my problem and I have now managed to install Realplayer without any hitches.
Incidentally, would bcastner enlighten me what the subinacl and reset.cmd file did to fix my problem?
Finally, many thanks to everyone who kindly responded to my thread.

 

[bcastner]

Novice01,

"Incidentally, would bcastner enlighten me what the subinacl and reset.cmd file did to fix my problem?"

I do not think it possible to make you happy with any response. When XP is compiled, there is a distinction made between priviliges and user rights. Rights are even
defined in a different header, NTSecAPI.h, from privileges, which are in WinNT.h. And on top of this classifcation, you have the possiblities of 16 NTFS filestore permissions, and a smaller set under the Win32 filestore.

What the subinacl command line allowed you to do was iterate through the registry hives to set Group Administrators, and Groups System to have full priviliges to write and change any registry key. For example, the first line in your .cmd file states:

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f

And you will see a later change for System:
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=systems=f

The "/grant=administrators=f" is a command line assertion that the adminitrator group has full priviliges. The "=f" means full or all priviliges.

Now natively XP comes with cacls.exe, but this requires that one specify the registry key or whatever explicitly in the command line. The advantage of using subincacls is that it "walks" the tree, applying the permission changes to all key values under the root of the hive, when I specificly use the subinacl /subkeyreg form of the command

To summarize:

Some applicatin or some user at some point screwed up the default settings for an Administrator Group member, and/or your local NT AUTHORITY system accounts in either your Rights, your Permissions, or your NTFS filestore ACLs. The above command is a brute force means to reset them.