Hi all! Last month I used the tip for removing old drivers to clean up my machine and it worked just fine, but since yesterday I've been getting this message at the command prompt "Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item." Today I find that I'm getting the above same message when I try to access Task Scheduler which I was accessing only a few weeks ago! I cannot recall doing anything serious to mess up my system. Since the time I removed the old drivers I've only updated my drivers, windows vista and used task scheduler to get past the UAC and create short cuts for ccleaner and regedit. Any ideas?
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Access denied to devmgmt.msc
(13 posts)Now I find I can't access most of the administrative tools, I tried changing the permissions from system to administrator but to no avail. This is the nasty message I'm getting, this one's for Task Scheduler
I also tried searching the web, it wasn't much help. Any advise on what to check or change would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Verify that your account is a member of the Administrators group:
net user %USERNAME%
Verify that the files have Read and Execute (RX) permission for Administrators:
icacls c:\windows\system32\devmgmt.msc
Sample output from my system:
Local Group Memberships *Administrators *Users
c:\windows\system32\devmgmt.msc NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(F)
BUILTIN\Administrators:(RX)
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)
BUILTIN\Users:(RX)
Hmm. You posted a screen shot of a Command Prompt window, so I assumed that you were familiar with it. Open a command prompt with elevated permission (run as admin) and enter the following commands:
> net user %USERNAME%
> icacls c:\windows\system32\devmgmt.msc
You don't type the ">". The output of the first command contains info about the current user account, including Local Group Memberships. That will tell us if your account is a member of Administrators. The second command checks the access control list (or permissions) for the given file. That will tell us if the files that you are trying to execute have permission for Administrators to run.
These things can be checked from the Windows GUI, but it's easier to copy text into a post than images.
Typing the first command I get "The user name cannot be found" but the second command gave me exactly what shows up in your system.
I tried checking the security tab for Task Scheduler and my name is in there as a user and also as an administrator with all permissions ticked for administrator except special permissions.
What is your username? It should be in the environment variable, USERNAME. To see what it's set to, run:
> echo %USERNAME%
If the output of that command is not the same as what you think your username is, that may be part of the problem. Whatever your username is, run the net user command on it directly. For example, my username is "scott", so I would run:
> net user scott
This gives me the same output as before.
OK, Scott a very funny thing is happening here, when I run the first command it gives me correctly my username which is my full name but when I run the second command
>net user "my full name"
it comes back with "The username could not be found"
very strange.
Would a picture of whats happening help?
Aha! It may be the problem that Windows has with spaces in commands. To include spaces, you use double-quotes around the entry. Let's say my username were Scott W, the command would be net user "scott w". Without the quotes it would just see "scott" and that would not be valid.
BTW: to copy text from the Command Prompt window, right-click in it and select "Mark". Select text with the mouse (click and drag with the left button), then press <Enter>. This will put the text into the clipboard and you can paste it here. That saves you from having to take a screen shot or post an image.
WARNING!! The net user command is dangerous and can change your password! By default, the syntax is "net user <username> <new_password>". I found this out the hard way, because it turns out when I ran the command "net user scott w", I changed my own password to "w". It took me a while to figure that out, all the while I was downloading password reset and cracking discs. Luckily I figured it out before having to break into my own account!
@Agacult, I have a feeling that the difference in your account settings is significant, but I don't know that for sure or why it would be. I suspect that the typical user account with Admin authority includes membership in Users. Can someone else please check your account memberships and tell us what they are? Thanks.
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