Access denied (changing a Startup List item)

While attempting to stop MSN Messenger from loading during startup, I
uncheck it from Startup list and get "Access denied while attempting to
change a service. You may need to log on using Administrator Account to
make changes". Booting to Safe Mode and signing in as Administrator (and
only user), I still get that message. I figure there must be a KB
article on this..........

Try logging in as Administrator and NOT in SAFE Mode...........

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"William Lurie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:iclp43$6pd$(E-Mail Removed)...
> While attempting to stop MSN Messenger from loading during startup, I
> uncheck it from Startup list and get "Access denied while attempting to
> change a service. You may need to log on using Administrator Account to
> make changes". Booting to Safe Mode and signing in as Administrator (and
> only user), I still get that message. I figure there must be a KB
> article on this..........

Thanks, Tim, but the only way I know of to log in as Administrator is
F8>>Safe mode.

Tim Meddick wrote:
> Try logging in as Administrator and NOT in SAFE Mode...........
>
> ==
>
> Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
>
>
>
>
> "William Lurie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:iclp43$6pd$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> While attempting to stop MSN Messenger from loading during startup, I
>> uncheck it from Startup list and get "Access denied while attempting to
>> change a service. You may need to log on using Administrator Account to
>> make changes". Booting to Safe Mode and signing in as Administrator (and
>> only user), I still get that message. I figure there must be a KB
>> article on this..........
>

William,

Do you normally get the "Welcome Screen" ?

Is the problem there is no "Administrator" listed on it ?

Then, one way is at the Welcome screen, press [Alt-Ctrl-Del] to bring up
the "classic" login dialogue box.....

*NB - On my XP machine, it's a little slow to bring up the login box, but
be a little patient accordingly. You may have to press [Alt-Ctrl-Del] one
more time if it has not appeared in over a minute's wait.....

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"William Lurie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:icltln$qao$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks, Tim, but the only way I know of to log in as Administrator is
> F8>>Safe mode.
>
> Tim Meddick wrote:
>> Try logging in as Administrator and NOT in SAFE Mode...........
>>
>> ==
>>
>> Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "William Lurie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:iclp43$6pd$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> While attempting to stop MSN Messenger from loading during startup, I
>>> uncheck it from Startup list and get "Access denied while attempting to
>>> change a service. You may need to log on using Administrator Account to
>>> make changes". Booting to Safe Mode and signing in as Administrator
>>> (and
>>> only user), I still get that message. I figure there must be a KB
>>> article on this..........
>>

William Lurie wrote:

> Tim Meddick wrote:
>
>> William Lurie wrote ...
>>
>>> While attempting to stop MSN Messenger from loading during startup, I
>>> uncheck it from Startup list and get "Access denied while attempting to
>>> change a service. You may need to log on using Administrator Account to
>>> make changes". Booting to Safe Mode and signing in as Administrator (and
>>> only user), I still get that message. I figure there must be a KB
>>> article on this..........
>>
>> Try logging in as Administrator and NOT in SAFE Mode...........
>
> Thanks, Tim, but the only way I know of to log in as Administrator is
> F8>>Safe mode.

Oh, you are using the Home edition of Windows XP. You didn't mention
that so we had to guess from your reply because of how Home makes you
use safe mode to log into the Administrator account. See
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290109.

"I uncheck it from Startup list". So we are to guess WHERE you happen
to uncheck the startup item? Might it be when using msconfig.exe? If
so, after getting the error message, exit and reload msconfig.exe. See
if the item you were told that you couldn't modify has actually been
modified. That is, reload msconfig.exe to check if the item got
disabled despite the error message. I've seen that message a couple
times but the change got made anyway.

Be aware that msconfig.exe only shows some of the common startup
locations in Windows, not all of them. If you want a more comprehensive
tool showing all startup items, get SysInternals' AutoRuns.

To find if Microsoft has a KB article, go to there site and do a search.
The problem is that Microsoft wants to shove their web-based forum posts
into their search results which are usually of little value and severely
dilute the usable results from their search. Oh yeah, you're looking
for help articles from Microsoft to only get the results polluted with
forum posts which many not get answered or have wrong or least-best
advice. So I use Google to search Microsoft's support site and use the
"site:" operator to narrow the search to just Microsoft's support site,
as in:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:support.microsoft.com+%2Bmsconfig+%2 B"access+denied"

If you don't like the articles found, you can then remove the site
parameter and search everywhere to see if you find more helpful
articles. I did the search at Microsoft's site but nothing looked
promising by its title or the snippet for it. I removed the site
operator and got other articles that may be more relevant to you. But
did you check if your change actually got rejected (by exiting and
reloading msconfig to see if your change was accepted or ignored)?

By the way, you should only be using the Administrator account in an
dire emergency. A separate admin-level account should get created and
you use THAT one for you admin tasks. Keep the Administrator account in
reserve as a backup in case you can't use your own admin-level account.
If all you have for an admin-level account is the Administrator account,
how are you going to perform admin tasks should the Administrator
profile get corrupted and you can no longer login to it? One of the
first tasks you should perform after the installation of Windows is to
create a different admin-level account and then use that one for your
admin tasks.

P.S. & BTW

(I don't know even if you get into your Admin acc. if it will solve your
problem, but it would have been my idea to avoid using safe-mode (if
possible) to correct malfunctions - it's seems limited to me. And, of
course, what works alright in safe-mode doesn't always guarantee that it
will also work in normal-mode ).

Other ways you could have accessed your Admin account...

1). Change (or add, if not present) this registry setting :


REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserLis t]
"Administrator"=dword:00000001


....(or you could copy/paste the text above into notepad and save as a
[.reg] file.)

(Tip: if you enclose your chosen filename in "quotes" in the "Save As.."
box, you can prevent applications that will try to name file with it's own
default extension - like [.txt] for Notepad - even though you typed in -
[MyData.reg] notepad will save it as [MyData.reg.txt] - annoyingly.
Enclosing your chosen filename in "quotes" prevents this and forces the
application to do as it's told)

The above will make the Administrator account visible as an item on your
"Welcome Screen"...


2). Use the built-in "runas" function to run your "Services.msc"
(Microsoft Management Console file) which will give you your Admin rights
over it :

At the Command Prompt (type "cmd.exe" in the Run" box) type the following
to run "Local Services" as Admin...

runas /user:Administrator "c:\windows\system32\mmc.exe
c:\windows\system32\services.msc"

....*note - everything after the [/user:] parameter must be enclosed in
"quotes"

It will then ask for the Admin password - just press [ENTER] if the Admin
password has never been set.

Very best of good luck in sorting out your original problem - but at least
you now know a few ways of getting into your Administrator account than you
did before!

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"Tim Meddick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:icm3tf$3on$(E-Mail Removed)...
> William,
>
> Do you normally get the "Welcome Screen" ?
>
> Is the problem there is no "Administrator" listed on it ?
>
> Then, one way is at the Welcome screen, press [Alt-Ctrl-Del] to bring up
> the "classic" login dialogue box.....
>
> *NB - On my XP machine, it's a little slow to bring up the login box, but
> be a little patient accordingly. You may have to press [Alt-Ctrl-Del]
> one more time if it has not appeared in over a minute's wait.....
>
> ==
>
> Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
>
>
>
>
> "William Lurie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:icltln$qao$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Thanks, Tim, but the only way I know of to log in as Administrator is
>> F8>>Safe mode.
>>
>> Tim Meddick wrote:
>>> Try logging in as Administrator and NOT in SAFE Mode...........
>>>
>>> ==
>>>
>>> Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "William Lurie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>> news:iclp43$6pd$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>> While attempting to stop MSN Messenger from loading during startup, I
>>>> uncheck it from Startup list and get "Access denied while attempting
>>>> to
>>>> change a service. You may need to log on using Administrator Account
>>>> to
>>>> make changes". Booting to Safe Mode and signing in as Administrator
>>>> (and
>>>> only user), I still get that message. I figure there must be a KB
>>>> article on this..........
>>>
>

Sorry all!

Didn't pay enough attention - assumed the OP was trying to "disable"
Messenger from "Local Services" on the Administrator Tools menu.

As you say, Vanguard, he used MSConfig.exe, and I don't even know if the
ideas I gave for accessing the Administrator account will work in "Home"
edition?

Someone might enlighten me on that point - or you could give the
suggestions a go anyway, William.


The "runas" command would simply look like this for [msconfig.exe]....

runas /user:Administrator "c:\windows\system32\msconfig.exe"

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"VanguardLH" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:icm48m$81m$(E-Mail Removed)...
> William Lurie wrote:
>
>> Tim Meddick wrote:
>>
>>> William Lurie wrote ...
>>>
>>>> While attempting to stop MSN Messenger from loading during startup, I
>>>> uncheck it from Startup list and get "Access denied while attempting
>>>> to
>>>> change a service. You may need to log on using Administrator Account
>>>> to
>>>> make changes". Booting to Safe Mode and signing in as Administrator
>>>> (and
>>>> only user), I still get that message. I figure there must be a KB
>>>> article on this..........
>>>
>>> Try logging in as Administrator and NOT in SAFE Mode...........
>>
>> Thanks, Tim, but the only way I know of to log in as Administrator is
>> F8>>Safe mode.
>
> Oh, you are using the Home edition of Windows XP. You didn't mention
> that so we had to guess from your reply because of how Home makes you
> use safe mode to log into the Administrator account. See
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290109.
>
> "I uncheck it from Startup list". So we are to guess WHERE you happen
> to uncheck the startup item? Might it be when using msconfig.exe? If
> so, after getting the error message, exit and reload msconfig.exe. See
> if the item you were told that you couldn't modify has actually been
> modified. That is, reload msconfig.exe to check if the item got
> disabled despite the error message. I've seen that message a couple
> times but the change got made anyway.
>
> Be aware that msconfig.exe only shows some of the common startup
> locations in Windows, not all of them. If you want a more comprehensive
> tool showing all startup items, get SysInternals' AutoRuns.
>
> To find if Microsoft has a KB article, go to there site and do a search.
> The problem is that Microsoft wants to shove their web-based forum posts
> into their search results which are usually of little value and severely
> dilute the usable results from their search. Oh yeah, you're looking
> for help articles from Microsoft to only get the results polluted with
> forum posts which many not get answered or have wrong or least-best
> advice. So I use Google to search Microsoft's support site and use the
> "site:" operator to narrow the search to just Microsoft's support site,
> as in:
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=site:support.microsoft.com+%2Bmsconfig+%2 B"access+denied"
>
> If you don't like the articles found, you can then remove the site
> parameter and search everywhere to see if you find more helpful
> articles. I did the search at Microsoft's site but nothing looked
> promising by its title or the snippet for it. I removed the site
> operator and got other articles that may be more relevant to you. But
> did you check if your change actually got rejected (by exiting and
> reloading msconfig to see if your change was accepted or ignored)?
>
> By the way, you should only be using the Administrator account in an
> dire emergency. A separate admin-level account should get created and
> you use THAT one for you admin tasks. Keep the Administrator account in
> reserve as a backup in case you can't use your own admin-level account.
> If all you have for an admin-level account is the Administrator account,
> how are you going to perform admin tasks should the Administrator
> profile get corrupted and you can no longer login to it? One of the
> first tasks you should perform after the installation of Windows is to
> create a different admin-level account and then use that one for your
> admin tasks.

Thank you for the extended and thorough discussion, Vang and Tim.
You've given me plenty to work with.

Just one point about having Administrator Account to have in case of
failure. I go to great lengths to always have a recent clone of my full
hard drive partition, on another drive. If and when I require it, I
simply reboot to the slave drive, and update a few appropriate
directories as needed.

Bill

Tim Meddick wrote:
> Sorry all!
>
> Didn't pay enough attention - assumed the OP was trying to "disable"
> Messenger from "Local Services" on the Administrator Tools menu.
>
> As you say, Vanguard, he used MSConfig.exe, and I don't even know if the
> ideas I gave for accessing the Administrator account will work in "Home"
> edition?
>
> Someone might enlighten me on that point - or you could give the
> suggestions a go anyway, William.
>
>
> The "runas" command would simply look like this for [msconfig.exe]....
>
> runas /user:Administrator "c:\windows\system32\msconfig.exe"
>
> ==
>
> Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
>
>
>
>
> "VanguardLH" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:icm48m$81m$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> William Lurie wrote:
>>
>>> Tim Meddick wrote:
>>>
>>>> William Lurie wrote ...
>>>>
>>>>> While attempting to stop MSN Messenger from loading during startup, I
>>>>> uncheck it from Startup list and get "Access denied while
>>>>> attempting to
>>>>> change a service. You may need to log on using Administrator
>>>>> Account to
>>>>> make changes". Booting to Safe Mode and signing in as Administrator
>>>>> (and
>>>>> only user), I still get that message. I figure there must be a KB
>>>>> article on this..........
>>>>
>>>> Try logging in as Administrator and NOT in SAFE Mode...........
>>>
>>> Thanks, Tim, but the only way I know of to log in as Administrator is
>>> F8>>Safe mode.
>>
>> Oh, you are using the Home edition of Windows XP. You didn't mention
>> that so we had to guess from your reply because of how Home makes you
>> use safe mode to log into the Administrator account. See
>> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290109.
>>
>> "I uncheck it from Startup list". So we are to guess WHERE you happen
>> to uncheck the startup item? Might it be when using msconfig.exe? If
>> so, after getting the error message, exit and reload msconfig.exe. See
>> if the item you were told that you couldn't modify has actually been
>> modified. That is, reload msconfig.exe to check if the item got
>> disabled despite the error message. I've seen that message a couple
>> times but the change got made anyway.
>>
>> Be aware that msconfig.exe only shows some of the common startup
>> locations in Windows, not all of them. If you want a more comprehensive
>> tool showing all startup items, get SysInternals' AutoRuns.
>>
>> To find if Microsoft has a KB article, go to there site and do a search.
>> The problem is that Microsoft wants to shove their web-based forum posts
>> into their search results which are usually of little value and severely
>> dilute the usable results from their search. Oh yeah, you're looking
>> for help articles from Microsoft to only get the results polluted with
>> forum posts which many not get answered or have wrong or least-best
>> advice. So I use Google to search Microsoft's support site and use the
>> "site:" operator to narrow the search to just Microsoft's support site,
>> as in:
>>
>> http://www.google.com/search?q=site:support.microsoft.com+%2Bmsconfig+%2 B"access+denied"
>>
>>
>> If you don't like the articles found, you can then remove the site
>> parameter and search everywhere to see if you find more helpful
>> articles. I did the search at Microsoft's site but nothing looked
>> promising by its title or the snippet for it. I removed the site
>> operator and got other articles that may be more relevant to you. But
>> did you check if your change actually got rejected (by exiting and
>> reloading msconfig to see if your change was accepted or ignored)?
>>
>> By the way, you should only be using the Administrator account in an
>> dire emergency. A separate admin-level account should get created and
>> you use THAT one for you admin tasks. Keep the Administrator account in
>> reserve as a backup in case you can't use your own admin-level account.
>> If all you have for an admin-level account is the Administrator account,
>> how are you going to perform admin tasks should the Administrator
>> profile get corrupted and you can no longer login to it? One of the
>> first tasks you should perform after the installation of Windows is to
>> create a different admin-level account and then use that one for your
>> admin tasks.
>

I would be very interested if you tried the "registry solution" to add
Administrator to the list of "logins" on the "Welcome Screen".


Referring to what others have said here concerning XP Home's "neutered"
feel when Home edition is compared to Pro edition. - I have found that in
many cases, the feature or function was not absent or barred, but simply
not enabled by default.

I guess M$ don't think Mr Average is going to dig that deep to restore
XP_Professional-edition-level-functionality.....

A "for instance" ; it is known that although the Recovery Console can
equally be installed as a start-up option in "Home" as with "Pro".
However, you are told that there is no "set" command in the "Home" edition.
(This can give R.C. access to all folders and files (save encrypted) and
could be big for recovery).
But, all you have to do is delve into the registry and set a single
reg-value and the set command is usable in Recovery Console.

This is just one very detailed example, but shows how I see many things
placed out-of-reach for the "Home" user!


I tried my best to send you the reg-file as an attachment, I did all the
copy / pasting myself for you (the reg-setting I quoted earlier) and into a
reg-file.

I saw you were using Thunderbird as your emailer/newsreader and thought I'd
"give it a go"....

If you would like me to send you the reg-file to see your "Administrator"
with your normal username on the old "Welcome Screen" , then email me
directly (you can use the "reply" button as my address is true) with your
email address so I can send it you.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)

P.S. As mentioned; I would REALLY love to know if it IS possible in
"Home", as my theory about the limitations it has, suggests.


"William Lurie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:icm7ls$4ba$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thank you for the extended and thorough discussion, Vang and Tim.
> You've given me plenty to work with.
>
> Just one point about having Administrator Account to have in case of
> failure. I go to great lengths to always have a recent clone of my full
> hard drive partition, on another drive. If and when I require it, I
> simply reboot to the slave drive, and update a few appropriate
> directories as needed.
>
> < clipped >
>

On Nov 25, 8:42*am, William Lurie <billu...@nospam.net> wrote:
> While attempting to stop MSN Messenger from loading during startup, I
> uncheck it from Startup list and get "Access denied while attempting to
> change a service. You may need to log on using Administrator Account to
> make changes". Booting to Safe Mode and signing in as Administrator (and
> only user), I still get that message. I figure there must be a KB
> article on this..........


Trying to change something in msconfig you get access denied error
(but the change works):

An Access Denied error was returned while attempting to change a
service. You may need to log on using an Administrator account to make
the specified changes.

If you now or have ever had an HP printer installed, the problem is
most likely the HPZ12 service.

The msconfig changes seem to work, but the error message is annoying.

There is a possibility you will lose communications with your HP
printer if you want to prevent the error message. This may not be a
problem if you don't care about the communications or never use those
HP features.

You can also live with the message, knowing the changes really worked
or ask HP and they will usually suggest reinstalling Windows (I don't
think they know either!).

Depending on your comfort level with making system changes, here are
two solutions.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4531999_fix-...ror-using.html

http://pchell.com/support/msconfig_a...ed_error.shtml

Before making registry changes, backup your registry with this popular
free and easy to use tool:

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/erunt.html

It could also be NIS Norton Internet Security 2010 or NAV Norton Anti
Virus 2010 when using XP SP3 and maybe only in some Vista system (this
is a rumor

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norto...IS/td-p/151164