Lost administration rights

[adem2660]

Hi, people.

I got a new HP a few weeks ago (brand new). It's running windows 8.

My problem is that I lost my admin rights very quickly, despite only having 1 single account. I created an admin account (so I had 2) and that account could download and install everything.  My first and only admin account kept giving me the message when trying to install programs: windows could not access the specified device path or file.

Today, I tried deleting AVG and for some reason (after reboot) it worked! I could install/download everything.
Then I decided to download AVG again to keep my computer safe, and after the installment I got that annoying message again when trying to install a program (like Chrome).

So I once again deleted AVG and rebooted, but now it still doesn't work. I can give myself admin rights by right clicking it and going to permissions, but I need to do that with basically everything - and it actually also keeps me from running certain java applets.

What do I do? I formatted my computer 2 days ago and I've only download simple programs like java and such.. and AVG anti virus.

[adem2660]

Bump

[Allan]

Please don't bump threads less than 24 hours old. This is a fourm, not a chat room. You'll receive help in due time. Thank you.

[adem2660]

Please don't bump threads less than 24 hours old. This is a fourm, not a chat room. You'll receive help in due time. Thank you.

I'm sorry. Thanks for telling me.

[adem2660]

Trying to bump again.

Has anyone else experienced this before?

[SuperDave]

If it's a new computer why not go back to the retailer?

[patio]

If you formatted as you stated above and it still happened you're doing something wrong in Setup...

[venkee]

u can get rid of this problem if u have a linux bootable disk or any windws bootable disk
process 1: using windows bootable disk:
                 boot from from bootable disk and click on repair your system. it may say not-compatible. open command prompt in repair tools
                 now type [ren C:\windows\system32\sethc.exe sethcbak.exe] without braces. if it has done successfully done type
                 [copy C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe  C:\windows\system32\sethc.exe] without braces..
                 if u were struck with commands or opening command prompt post here
                now boot to ur os when logon screen appears press shift key 5 times(if hotkeys are switched off u can find on left edge of logon screen enable them and click shift key 5 times, ) this'll open u command prompt. now type [net localgroup administrators username /add] without braces. use account username instead of username in the command if it contains blank spaces keep the complete username in inverted commas ...
               now again boot from the bootable disk/usb and enter cmd as stated above and type the following commands
               [del C:\windows\system32\sethc.exe] without braces followed by [ren C:\windows\sethcbak.exe sethc.exe]. remove the bootable disk and enjoy ur admin account. if u got stuck with any problem post here. i'll tell u how to do that using ubuntu bootable disk

[edited by Allan]

[topdawg044]

I had much the same problem so I chose to reset my Gateway N570P13 system using a backup USB drive. The USB drive boots ok, but when I click "Refresh Your PC", it says that my drive is locked and tells me to unlock it and try again. Going to a command prompt and trying "unlock" yields an invalid cmd. I even tried to load an Unbuntu 13 iso but the computer wouldn't load it either.
BTW, the Gateway is fairly new so I wiped all my data files before trying the above reset.

What am I doing wrong? Gateway's CS was little help.

Tnx