Forced to use 'Run As..'

[JaxKovak]

Hi

A problem has started suddenly and I'm at a loss to know why or how to cure it. For some reason two games (Possibly more and possibly applications too, Iv just not tried everything on the system) have stopped working.

When I click the exe files or the shortcuts nothing happens. No errors and no messages.

However, if I right click the exe files and choose to "Run As.." and select to run as Administrator, the programs will run.

I can find no information about this at all. Both files were working fine and then suddenly required this strange user change.

I use the normal Windows XP user that is created during install (And which has admin privileges) and I don't run as the main Admin account at all.

Any help would be great since I'm now rather at a loss.

All the best

Jax

[O~Snapple]

What games are you running, I know that PunkBuster will only allow someone with Admin Rights to play certin games on servers. This sounds similiar but very different.

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the games

[JaxKovak]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

The games that are causing the problems are GTAVC and GTASA and yes, Iv re-installed both to no avail and I don't play online at all so Punkbuster is not even installed on my machine.

As for admin rights; The user account that is created by default by XP during installation has admin rights anyway. Which is one reason why I cant figure out this strange problem. Technically the Administrator account should be no different to the admin user account.

[O~Snapple]

What i would Suggest trying to to do a Complete Uninstall, Which includes
Unistall from add/remove programs in Control Panel
Also Manually Deleteing .ini's and .dlls for this specific game.

I had a Issue with 3D-FTP which one day decided to start taking 5 minutes to open.

and it only started working correctly when i deleted the .ini's and .dlls that are not removed with the uninstall.

its worth a shot

[JaxKovak]

Hmm thanks. Yes Iv done a complete re-install of both games but Iv not hunted about after and looked for ini files or registry entires etc. I might well give that a go, but I'm still at a loss to see how this situation has come about in the first place!

[UPDATE]
I have now un-installed both games and scoured the system and registry for any references to the games. I decided to keep things simple and install only GTA VC to start with to see how it went and alas there was no change. I had hope for the first few moments because the cursor showed longer activity than before but it was only waiting for the CD to fire up to check the disk and then it just all stopped again.

I'm really stumped. Iv repeatedly checked and scanned for virus or any spy/malware infections and found nothing, and I have a host of other games that run perfectly well as always. I just cant figure out why the GTA games have suddenly failed like this. I even went through all the other games and applications on the system to see if there were any others having the same problem and everything works fine!

[whipcrackin_guy]

I know games which will not run when u dont have the admin rights...

But this is crazy, since u r the default user created, and at least u cna install the games. Does it give you a message saying use a different a/c when u try to install it? if so somehow u ahve lost the admin privileges.

Try getting into the control panel and see if u still have the "Admin Tools". If u cant see them , prob u have lost the admin rights and have to login as admin to give the default login the same privileges.

One more question: are u running any spyware monitors which controls access to the registry? If so please close all spyware sweepers and try running the game.

Hope this helps.

[JaxKovak]

Thanks whipcrackin_guy,

Yes I still have admin rights and since I'm the only user I always install things for any user anyway, which is generally the default setting. There are no messages about installing with other accounts.

I run Spybot on a weekly basis and I don't run any live spyware monitors, only a virus checker, but both games have been running with that for ages anyway. I use AVG free version and Iv already tried to run the games with it disabled just in case an auto update caused the problem.

In a similar way Iv closed everything in my system tray that can be closed, including my firewall, but it makes no difference at all. After further tests last night I can definitely confirm that the GTA games are the only things on the machine that are affected by this madness.

[whipcrackin_guy]

If i remember right, spybot has something called teatimer, which controls editing of registry. But that comes in the systray. you cna double check perhaps.

strange...i run GTA SA on XP Pro and never had any of this problem. Mebbe a rare glitch

One last check - go to teh shortcut, select properties, shortcut, advanced tab and see if "run with different credentials" is checked.

[JaxKovak]

One last check...

I know that "run with different credentials" has not caused the problem because thats something I used when I found out that the games could be run as the Admin user.

In both cases Iv enabled and disabled it several times to make sure that its actually working as described and it all seems correct.

The Spybot teatimer is disabled by default on my system; I far prefer manual scans on a regular basis to having (yet) another item running in the background. It doesn't make much difference on this system but its a habit I have from the way off days of conserving every processor cycle and byte of memory to increase game performance.

I'm now at the stage of losing patience with the whole thing and I'm tempted to just un-install the games again and not bother with them until after my next windows re-install. I'm holding off from doing this mainly to see if I can find out a reason for the problem in the first place. Even if it cant be easily fixed without a windows re-install, it would be nice to know the root cause.

Thanks for your suggestions, and feel free to come up with any others that might come to mind. If I do actually find a cause for this Ill post it here, just in case it might effect others.

[whipcrackin_guy]

well, i am at my wits end here
if i cna come up with something, will log it here....