View Full Version : How can I shut off the "not administrator" warning on limited user accounts?
Lifeblood
2008-02-15, 20:50
Hi,
I have Windows XP Home and am the administrator account for my PC. I also have a second "limited" user account my girlfriend.
I have Spybot set up to automatically check for and download updates and auto-immunize.
I had Spybot S&D version 1.4 and never had a problem with anything on the limited account before. I just upgraded to Spybot S&D version 1.5.2. and all of a sudden, now when I try to log on to the limited account, I get a warning stating:
"This action may not be performed completely since you are not an administrator. If you want this performed for all users, please run this application elevated as an administrator."
Here's the kicker. After I click the ok button for that warning, it goes ahead and performs the download and immunizes. Seems to work completely fine.
Is there any way to kill this warning message? Is there a registry key or something that I can alter to stop this warning from popping up? It drives my girlfriend and frankly myself a little nuts to have to click this warning to go away every time we log on. Especially when it doesn't even seem to be valid.
Thanks for any help you can offer,
Lifeblood
to auto update and immunize. However, it should only do that if your trying to run the program.....therefor you are saying when you click u g/f user name on the welcome screen, and it says logging on, it is trying to open spybot and auto update? that means the program is set to load on startup for her user account. I have the latest version on my pc and have no issues with my other 2 limited user accounts on this pc. Try going to msconfig under run in the start menu in the limited user account, and look for the path that is executing (opening) spybot, and uncheck and click apply and ok. restart. hope that helps. If it doesn't, or its not there in msconfig, open spybot on the limited user account, and disable the settings that you set on your admin account. Then restart and see if it still happens. Changing things on the limited account shouldn't affect the admin account. hope that helps you!
Lifeblood
2008-02-15, 23:21
Just to clarify.
I would like Spybot to run, update, and immunize on both the administrator account AND the limited user account.
Sure, disabling it from msconfig will get rid of the annoying message, but it will ALSO get rid of Spybot running at startup. I don't want that.
Is there a way I can run it on both accounts without that annoying message popping up? I was able to do it with versions 1.4 and earlier with no problems. I mean I've been doing this literally for years. It's only become an issue on version 1.5.2. I don't know why.
as in automatic scan? you set a time for it to scan u system, and then when it runs it auto updates and immunizes, and then performs the scan? because spybot shouldn't be auto updating and immunzing if the program is not running.....thats what I'm not understanding. you would have to set the program to open on your account when you load your windows user account, in order for it to auto update and immunize...otherwise, you opened the program yourself...
another thing i wanted to add, is that limited accounts are safe from 90% of malware and spyware and like the like, because they cannot change anything. Therefor, you don't really need spybot to watch the limited accounts, but its your choice. I just wanted to let you know that. :)
there isn't a need to scan or update or immunize spybot on the limited account, because the admin account updates itself, so there is no need to update on both accounts.....the admin account should add it to the limited account, any updates, immunization, etc. And scanning under admin is the best way to do a scan. sry if I'm not understand you correctly, I'm doing my best to help. I hope a team member will see this post and respond maybe with a better solution...
Lesley_Park
2008-04-11, 22:04
Reading the posts in this thread, it seems that there's no way round having to log in as administrator to avoid the error message when Spybot runs. My laptop is set up for me to use as a limited user (I run XP Pro with SP2), and I usually shout for my husband to log in as admin when admin things need doing. It's not very common for him to have to log in as admin, so a full scan wouldn't get done as often as I'd like.
Is there any way round this problem, apart from logging on once a day as admin?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Lesley Park
no idea why you are getting this error message on the limited user account, as i do not receive this message on my machine.
What exactly does the message say?
You 2 people have been the only ones to report this issue so far. Try uninstalling spybot from the admin account, and then download the latest version and install it again. Download all availiable updates, Run a full scan and immunize under the admin account. Restart your system.
Then try opening under the limited account again and see if you still experience this message. I would generally recommend that when you scan with security software, you should use the admin account, as certain malware and spyware can only be removed via the admin account. Hope that helps you. :) post back and let me know!
drunkpile
2008-05-07, 23:12
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/drunkpile/errormsg.jpg
It seems that 1.5.2 assumes that you are an "administrator". Rather than having limited access accounts on the same computer, I have a server that runs multiple computers on "limited" accounts. Granting admin rights would not be an option here. The computers run a scan and autofix upon startup. Acknowledging this message, I assume that nothing is being fixed at start up. How can this be remedied without granting administrator rights?
dp
velourpush
2008-05-08, 09:28
I'm having the same message pop up (using Vista) , but under the administrator's account (it's the only account here), which is perplexing because I wouldn't know how else to get rid of the message and allow spybot to continue immunizing. It won't let me complete immunization either.
Update: I found the solution to the problem I was having here: http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=18063
in a very old thread. Please post new topics velourpush and drunkpile thank you :) We can assist you more easily that way. btw, I'm glad velourpush found a solution. If drunkpile is using vista as well, there is the answer to your problem. ;)
drunkpile
2008-05-08, 19:32
But in my searches of the forums this was the most recent that was closest to the subject matter. The solution posted wouldn't help as we are running XP pro. We've tried a number of things that didn't work. As it is, we have disabled the autofix option and let spybot catch stuff as they come. Doesn't really fix anything but its better than granting admin rights. Any other solutions? I'll try putting up a new post.
Thanks!
CGirardy
2008-06-10, 08:35
Apparently, no one at Spybot seems to take care of this problem....
I'm going to stick to Spybot 1.4 because I don't have this annoying / idiot problem.
I want my non-local administrator users to have the right, every time they start their computers to auto-update Spybot.
I don't care about the fact that a non-administrator account is away from 90% of the threats. It's totally wrong and it's not an answer.
Will someone take care of this at Spybot or forget about it ?
I would just like to have an answer so that I can prepare my 900 network computers to upgrade to 1.5 or not this summer.
If you tell me that the solution is to go with the small enterprise version, I won't accept it. I don't want to pay for a software that is free and working perfectly in version 1.4x.... just because it's a new version.
Thanks for your answers.
md usa spybot fan
2008-06-10, 09:05
CGirardy:
... If you tell me that the solution is to go with the small enterprise version, I won't accept it. I don't want to pay for a software that is free and working perfectly in version 1.4x.... just because it's a new version. ...
Spybot is not free for corporate users.
CGirardy
2008-06-10, 09:07
CGirardy:
Spybot is not free for corporate users.
Ok, it's your answer....
I see, so I'll forget about Spybot in my next master
Sure, a company that has a 70 million Euro turnover per year needs to use unlicensed copies of software, that's so understandable... :oops:
CGirardy
2008-06-10, 13:59
Sure, a company that has a 70 million Euro turnover per year needs to use unlicensed copies of software, that's so understandable... :oops:
What company ? The one I'm working for ?
Yes, it's on your companies website.
CGirardy
2008-06-10, 14:15
Yes, it's on your companies website.
Ok, it's my company so.... I honestly didn't know that I couldn't use Spybot in my company...
Now that I know it, I'll remove it and check with my partners what other solution I have.
Don't think that I have so much money to spend in my department. I've always used Spybot for my personal use and have always been happy with it so I decided to integrate it in my new master.
Now that I know that I wasn't able to do it, I'll have to either go for the paying version or find a replacement.
I haven't tested the paying solution but I made an estimation a few months ago because I was interested in the msi version of your product.
What I fear is that if I adopt the paying version and have the same problem as I have now, I won't be very happy.... And I don't see why I wouldn't have the same problem right now.
Here's the reason you wouldn't have this problem again ;)
Avoid Administrator warning dialog when being non-admin (http://forums.spybot.info/project.php?issueid=263)
Adding things like these to the settings dialog would just grow that enormously and confuse users; but since 1.5 we've started to implement support for some "undocumented tweaks", small registry settings for irregular things.
I just need to get aware of such things; the best way to get such a feature usually would be to write a well-formed (see examples on bugtracker, ) feature request in the beta forum.
CGirardy
2008-06-10, 20:57
Thanks for the tweak. I'm going to try it on my test virtual machine.
Apparently, I'm going to have problems using v1.5 in my corporate network unless I'm paying for the Corporate version.
I'm gonna check with my IT director to see if we can buy this version (and I would love to test the centralized administration).
Thanks again for your help