Computer trivia

Windows for since its inception has been giving administrative privileges to all the programs. This was done mainly for the convenience of the users and in fact helped Windows getting more user friendly. However, this feature of Windows has been exploited by many malware writers whose programs also were given administrative privileges. To avoid this Microsoft has reduced the privileges given to programs in Vista i.e. a program is given only the privileges required for it to run. Even if you are running as an Administrator, the programs will not be given administrative privileges. You should have observed Vista asking your permission before any program starts execution, which is a result of this setup.

Okay. This security provision is pretty fine. However, this sometimes causes problems to the users, especially to people who only used Windows and thus used to see everything working at administrative privileges. For example, when you start Command prompt for RUN box and try to stop some running service or change network settings, Windows will not allow you saying you do not have enough privileges.

This is because even the Command Prompt is not given administrative privileges. However, there is a solution which is quite simple. Just go to cmd.exe, right click it and say “Open as Administrator”. This will open the prompt with administrative privileges and you will be able to do whatever you were doing previously on windows without any problems. 

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