Windows 7/ Notepad and administrator-rights issue

[Bram Turismo]

I'm about to go crazy here.

I'm trying to alter a .cfg file with Notepad of the Crysis game but when I try to save the file Notepad says I don't have access to do so and that I should contact the administrator.

Funny, I am the administrator!

Sigh, Windows 7 and all this administrator access is such a pain in the ass. If possible, I'd like to disable it all together so that it doesn't ask me ten thousand times whether I am really, really, really sure I want to install Firefox...

 

[nick09]

Well to get rid those notifications you go to the Control Panel --> User Accounts --> Change User Account Control settings. In that window you can change the level to whatever you like.

 

[DQuaN]

Sounds similar to what happens when you try to edit the hosts file.

You need to locate the notepad shortcut in the start menu, right click, and run as administrator. Then browse and open your config file and you should be able to edit and save it.

 

[magburner]

Sounds similar to what happens when you try to edit the hosts file.

Why would you want to edit the hosts file?

 

[F1KimiFreak]

Why would you want to edit the hosts file?

if you are a web developer, you could easily want to edit the hosts file. 👍

 

[Sniffs]

as I was informed with a PC game i currently run, you have to run ANYTHING you want to "play with" in admin mode. Vista and 7 have this as antivirus and antispyware barriers.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

as I was informed with a PC game i currently run, you have to run ANYTHING you want to "play with" in admin mode. Vista and 7 have this as antivirus and antispyware barriers.

Usually anything that changes system-level settings (as opposed to user-level settings) requires this privilege elevation. It's there for the users' protection, but most self-professed 'experts' think that they know better and try to switch it off.

Which is all fine and well for when you're doing something intentionally, and deliberately, but not fine when an unauthorised process is trying to do something to the machine without your knowledge. Read the security bulletins: 95% say "runs with the privileges of the logged-in user". Accordingly, if the logged-in user is a base-level user, the unauthorised process does not have rights. When the unauthorised process tries to modify a system setting, the escalation routine is tripped, and the user should be thinking "hmm, what's up?"

This isn't actually that onerous. Start menu shortcuts can be configured to be "Run as Administrator" by default, prompting the escalation as the shortcut is run, and thus saving you the hassle of the privilege failure.

Looking at the OP's gripe: he's trying to overwrite a config file in the Program Files hierarchy, and he's bleating about having to supply admin credentials! And yet if a virus overwrote a file in the same hierarchy he'd probably bleat about Windows being insecure. [Note: this is a straw-man extension of the observed facts, the OP may in fact be more reasonable than this]

Frankly, I don't understand what people's beef is with User Account Control. If you're doing something intentional, is it that hard to do it with an admin-level instance of the required program? Linux users - who bang on and on about the superiority of their OS - are used to doing this self-same thing, running admin-level programs under 'sudo'. (Unless they're Windows-moron-level users who have logged in as "root").

 

[Sureboss]

as I was informed with a PC game i currently run, you have to run ANYTHING you want to "play with" in admin mode. Vista and 7 have this as antivirus and antispyware barriers.

Which can also be overcome by changing the DEP settings in some instances.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Looking at the OP's gripe: he's trying to overwrite a config file in the Program Files hierarchy, and he's bleating about having to supply admin credentials

Well, I am the admin, so why should I confirm it when it's clearly me who is trying to edit the files?

That's like when you go to a bank to take out money, and the counter responds with "Excuse me, sir, but I need your permission to allow you to take out the money you just confirmed for withdrawel. Please contact yourself and ask for authorization"



As for un-wanted file changes: I never, ever had a single problem with Windows XP. Anything. I just don't like this whole "Are you sure you want to run Firefox when you've just instructed me to do so?" attitude of Windows 7.

 

[boiltheocean]

As for un-wanted file changes: I never, ever had a single problem with Windows XP. Anything. I just don't like this whole "Are you sure you want to run Firefox when you've just instructed me to do so?" attitude of Windows 7.

This is why I switched back to XP so fast. I see Giles arguments for it but I'm a safe surfer and cautious of what I download and where from. That along with some Anti-virus software and I am quite satisfied with my level of security, I do not wish to have Windows 7 query me about extracting a ZIP file to My Documents. Infact it never even queried me, it just did nothing, not even a message saying I couldn't extract there.

 

[Tornado]

Do I have some sort of super version of 7? Maybe it is from my time using Vista (which was much more common and much more intrusive), but I barely ever have UAC scream at me when I use it. I save in Downloads, fiddle with things there, then I just copy the newly fiddled things to where I want them.
For all the hullabaloo about UAC, it isn't that bad in Windows 7, and if it gives you the crap about "You can't save there, would you like to save it in documents instead?" just turn off the security settings for that particular folder.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Well, ever since I turned the warning level down it got better. Still a bit too much working on my nerves, but I'll keep it this way. If XP wasn't limited to DX9 I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Anyway, ever since Dunc posted Notepad has been doing what I asked of it