Windows 8 – Easy Admin Access

Hi,
One of the difficulties I’ve had with using Windows 8 is getting access to stuff. Stuff I’m used to accessing easily, like being able to edit a text file under C:\Program Files\. In Windows 8, on a non-domain connected PC and using a Windows Account, you can’t do this. Even if you’re an Administrator, and you’ve turned off User Access Control (UAC):

This gets frustrating very quickly. I was really baffled by this behaviour – why am I, as a local administrator on Windows 8 using a Windows Account, getting ‘Access Denied’ when trying to edit a text file under a Program Files folder??

I posted onto the Microsoft Technet forums here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w8itprogeneral/thread/af7cfb87-769f-4789-b6ac-1894cc9ea581/ where I was advised that this was by design. The upside, was that I was told about a handy little feature on how to run anything as administrator easily. ‘Create New Task’ has a great little tickbox that says ‘Create this task with administrative privilidges’. I’m not sure why this is called ‘Create New Task’ as it looks exactly the same as the ‘Run’ window, even with the same text. To get this, open Task Manager and go to File > Create New Task.

You can run anything here just as you would from the ‘Run’ window, including ‘explorer’ which will bring up Windows Explorer, but with PROPER full Administrator access, finally allowing me to edit that text file I was going on about earlier.

Hopefully once you know this, you’ll also be less frustrated like me!

5 thoughts on “Windows 8 – Easy Admin Access

  1. Win8.1 – doesn’t work here….
    Even if I do stuff up my computer, surely thats my option??
    Why is this always a journey into the unknown at every “upgrade” of windows?

  2. Hullo Adam,
    thanks for the reply.
    Have tried all the above and still unable to access the application data folder. I know it can be fraught with disaster with a slip of the mouse but as mentioned above, surely that’s my option?
    Anyway, still no access.
    (why do I want it? ‘cos I’m curious?)
    best regards
    Ian

    1. Are you unable to get into the application data folder to view things, or trying to copy/edit a file in there?

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