Stuck in "Administrator" mode...how to get out?

PeterJones

If you try running cmd.exe from double-clicking the executable, does it prefix the title bar with “Administrator:”? I am wondering IT left your machine in a state where everything is running as administrator. (I know I had mine running always-as-admin a few years back, but I have forgotten how I did it or undid it – maybe someplace in the UAC settings)

Alan Kilborn

@PeterJones said:

If you try running cmd.exe from double-clicking the executable, does it prefix the title bar with “Administrator:”?

It does NOT.

I am wondering IT left your machine in a state where everything is running as administrator

If this were true it would actually ease my current problem…drag-and-drop (into Notepad++) failures. :)

PeterJones

Have you checked your registry? this thread was trying to force it to open in Administrator mode, but if similar entries had the RUNASADMIN already, then maybe deleting those entries would work…

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

You might also check whether one of your entries like HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\notepad++.exe or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Applications\notepad++.exe has a runas verb as well as (or instead of) an open verb.

Maybe start searching the registry for notepad++.exe and/or runas – it will find some irrelevant ones, but might find you what you are looking for…

Meta Chuh

@Alan-Kilborn

@PeterJones 's good ideas regarding cmd and runas also made me think:
what would happen if you start a cmd window and execute runas /trustlevel:0x20000 "Your_Path_To\notepad++.exe" ?

does np++ still show [Administrator] in the title bar and in the debug info ?

guy038

Hi, @alan-kilborn, @meta-chuh, @peterjones, @eko-palypse,

Maybe what I’m about to say sounds silly, as I’m not a coder, ( yet! ), but why not look at the part of N++ code, responsible for the display of [Administrator] in the N++ title bar ?

Probably, this occurs, ONLY IF several, conditions are, simultaneously, true ! Then, you would have to verify if each of these individual conditions is checked or not, in Alan’s configuration ?!

Cheers,

guy038

Alan Kilborn

I looked in the registry but didn’t see any weirdness such as Peter suggested. Trying Meta Chuh’s runas command resulted in N++ running and still presenting “Administrator” in the title bar… :(

Alan Kilborn

@guy038 said:

why not look at the part of N++ code, responsible for the display of [Administrator] in the N++ title bar ?

Not an unreasonable suggestion at this point. :)

Here’s how the title bar gets set:

void Notepad_plus::setTitle()
{
    if (_isAdministrator)
        result += TEXT(" [Administrator]");

Which leads back to how _isAdministrator is determined:

Notepad_plus::Notepad_plus()
{
    // Determine if user is administrator.
    BOOL is_admin;
    winVer ver = NppParameters::getInstance()->getWinVersion();
    if (ver >= WV_VISTA || ver == WV_UNKNOWN)
    {
        SID_IDENTIFIER_AUTHORITY NtAuthority = SECURITY_NT_AUTHORITY;
        PSID AdministratorsGroup;
        is_admin = AllocateAndInitializeSid(&NtAuthority, 2, SECURITY_BUILTIN_DOMAIN_RID, DOMAIN_ALIAS_RID_ADMINS, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, &AdministratorsGroup);
        if (is_admin)
        {
            if (!CheckTokenMembership(NULL, AdministratorsGroup, &is_admin))
                is_admin = FALSE;
            FreeSid(AdministratorsGroup);
        }
    }
    else
        is_admin = false;

    _isAdministrator = is_admin ? true : false;
}

Alan Kilborn

I suppose I will just “live with it”. It appears that however I.T. has my account set up, it isn’t going to play well anymore with Notepad++. Asking I.T. to “fix” what they’ve done would likely be counterproductive as I’d probably end up with a worse situation.

I remember when computers were engineering tools. I’m not sure what they are now, but I don’t think it is that. :(

andrecool-68

How is it generally with a user account?
Here is an example of two programs on the same machine.

Meta Chuh

@Alan-Kilborn

i think i found something i can reproduce:
i’ve set up a windows 7 x64 bit test vm with a standard user.
if i start notepad++ portable or installed, it loads as this default user.

i’ve then entered the user settings and slided the user access control slider from default down to off (disable uac) and rebooted.

tadaaaa: from now on i always see [Administrator] in the notepad++ top bar, even if it is not running as administrator.

maybe it’s the same on your system ?
maybe the it guy temporarily disabled uac because he was annoyed by it while he was setting up something, and he just forgot or didn’t bother to re-enable it again ?

Meta Chuh

@andrecool-68

i think that administrator detection of newer versions of notepad++ relies on an active user access control.
what happens if you re-enable uac and set it to default for a test, then reboot ?
does it still say [administrator] in your portable 7.6.2 or is it gone then ?

alt

andrecool-68

True UAC is disabled!

andrecool-68

Yesterday I reinstalled the 7x64 operating system, and turned it off myself.

Alan Kilborn

@Meta-Chuh

Here’s how that screen looks for me:

Imgur

andrecool-68

Alan Kilborn

Not sure why people are upvoting my UAC screenshot. I guess I should say that I didn’t change that setting in any way and just posted it here so Meta Chuh could see what I have and what I’ve always had there. My problem still exists (just to be clear).

PeterJones

I tend to upvote good answers, or replies that ask questions I think are worth asking, or replies that directly and informatively answer those questions or add useful information to a discussion: knowing that having UAC enabled does not fix it for you is useful to the discussion – it says that “well, we haven’t yet found the root cause”. It’s unfortunate, but it still helps move the thread forward.

Meta Chuh

i second that.

i gave you an upvote on your screenshot, because you actually took the time to do so.

of course it doesn’t solve your issue and no one thinks it’s solved just because you got the slider way up and posted it, and for you it’s probably a natural thing to participate to get issues solved, but you’ve seen for yourself how few people do the same and keep reposting the same thing over and over again without trying anything suggested.

i simply had to give you an upvote for it, it’s in my nature ;-)

Alan Kilborn

Thanks for everyone’s efforts so far…

Meta Chuh

@Alan-Kilborn said:

Thanks for everyone’s efforts so far…

you can’t imagine how hard it was for me to keep my finger off that upvote button right now 😂😂😂 ;-)