Computer Hope

Microsoft => Microsoft Windows => Windows Vista and 7 => Topic started by: jonnyD on September 14, 2011, 08:04:34 PM

Title: Windows 7 Home Premium - cannot type in administrator password
Post by: jonnyD on September 14, 2011, 08:04:34 PM
My daughter has a laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium OS. Whenever we try to download anything, we get a security pop-up that says:

Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer? To continue, type an administrtator password, then click yes.

There is no place to type a password and the "YES" box is grayed out.  I am only able to click on "NO."  I realize this user account does not have administrator priveleges so I tried to go into user accounts to assign her account administtrator rights but I get the same pop-up
Title: Re: Windows 7 Home Premium - cannot type in administrator password
Post by: jason2074 on September 15, 2011, 12:02:59 AM
Try lowering the notification slider on your UAC settings by Control Panel/System Security/Action Center/Change UAC Settings, click Ok.
(http://i.imgur.com/ek50k.jpg)
Try this settings. Its possible that its on Always Notify.
Title: Re: Windows 7 Home Premium - cannot type in administrator password
Post by: jonnyD on September 15, 2011, 08:32:42 AM
I am unable to make the change.  There is a shield icon next to "Change UAC settings" that indicates I will get a security pop-up - which I do - in order to access the UAC settings: and then I'm unable to type in an admin password as the pop-up asks (I mentioned this in my first post).  Why cannot I even type in the password if that's what's required?

FYI: There is a shield icon next to many differnet areas in Control Panel: add or remove user accounts, set up parental controls, change UAC control settings, device manager.  All of these get the same pop-up.
Title: Re: Windows 7 Home Premium - cannot type in administrator password
Post by: Allan on September 15, 2011, 08:38:30 AM
See if this works for you: http://www.tweak-uac.com/home/
Title: Re: Windows 7 Home Premium - cannot type in administrator password
Post by: jonnyD on September 15, 2011, 12:23:53 PM
At this point, having read the article about the efficacy of UAC, I would love to just turn it off.  Unfortunately, I cannot download anything because the pop-up asking me to allow the download is the same one I've been getting and I cannot type an Admin password into the pop-up.
Title: Re: Windows 7 Home Premium - cannot type in administrator password
Post by: patio on September 15, 2011, 12:26:16 PM
Try booting into safemode...try the download...and try turning UAC off as per the instructions...
Title: Re: Windows 7 Home Premium - cannot type in administrator password
Post by: jonnyD on September 15, 2011, 11:25:05 PM
Interestingly, I booted up in Safe Mode and was given a choice of logging on as an Administrator account or a user account.  I logged on as Admin (it was password protected and I know the password).  I was then able to turn off the UAC without having to use the tweak tool.  ;D  Thanks, Patio. 

I still wonder why I was not allowed to type an Admin password into the UAC pop-up.  I thought that was the whole point: to be able to choose to allow and action or not as long as the password is known.
Title: Re: Windows 7 Home Premium - cannot type in administrator password
Post by: patio on September 16, 2011, 07:37:34 AM
I'd bet that when you tried you were in a simple User account...where that option would be greyed out by design.
Title: Re: Windows 7 Home Premium - cannot type in administrator password
Post by: jonnyD on September 16, 2011, 10:33:05 AM
Ah, yes I was.  So the choice to allow an action or not only happens with the Admin account?
Title: Re: Windows 7 Home Premium - cannot type in administrator password
Post by: patio on September 16, 2011, 10:41:18 AM
Correct....otherwise Users would be able to make changes the Admin doesn't want.

Good to hear you're solved and Welcome to CH ! !