Task Manager>click "show processes from all users'>yes on UAC prompt>nothing happens

Question

This is repost from the thread: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistaprograms/thread/3f477b3e-cda4-4f95-9265-5c4752595401

OS: Vista SP2 32-bit all Windows Updates applied

Has there been a resolution other than the theme switch described as the solution here?(http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistaprograms/thread/3f477b3e-cda4-4f95-9265-5c4752595401)

This seems to be the only other place

on the web where I've been able to find this exact issue. I thought that maybe it was the Windows SDK that I recenly installed, but the problem persists upon uninstalling from Control Panel>Programs and Features. I've tried switching to the default Vista theme and then reapplying the Windows Classic (my prefered) and rebooting, but the bug persists. I do not have any of the Power Toys or other things that bambig had, just Visual Studio 2008, VB6, and a few other dev tools. Is this a registry issue or something else? It seems that the UAC tries to run the string '  "cmd.exe" /c takeown /f "C:\windows\system32\taskmgr.exe" && icacls "C:\Windows\System32\taskmgr.exe" /grant administrator:F  ' after you click 'Continue' from the prompt. I can see the command window does open briefly and then closes, along with the original task manager window that I clicked "show processes from all users" from. This command seems to be breaking, because if create a batch file with this command it throws and error as follows:

ERROR: The current logged on user does not have the ownership priviledges on the file (or folder) "C:\windows\system32\tasskmgr.exe"

Any ideas what this should be, and/or where to change it???

Answer 1

Hello weekendclimber,

 Thank you for using Microsoft Windows Vista Forums.

 Sorry you are still having this problem!  Looking at the previous forum I noticed the second to last post:

Have you tried System Restore to get back to before your troubles began?

See if this tool can fix up your right-click menu?

ShellExView v1.35 - Shell Extensions Manager**http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html**

When you used the cmd.exe to uninstall the program was that "Run As Administrator" too?. Are you able to use System Restore to go back prior to this problem?  I am sure you are more than familiar with the link below but just want to verify all steps.  Please let us know status.  Thanks!

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/64d1b43a-3f23-48bb-91d5-e130aab85ce01033.mspx

You can also view which services are associated with a process. To view which services are running in a particular process, right-click a process, and then click Go to Service(s). The services associated with the process are highlighted on the Services tab.

Notes<br><ul><br><li>If you right-click a process on the Processes tab and click<br><strong>Go to Service(s)</strong>, but you do not see any highlighted services, then the process does not have any services associated with it, regardless of whether processes from all users are shown or not.<br></li><li>If you are viewing the Services tab and click <strong><br>Go to Process</strong>, but no process is highlighted in the Processes tab, the process is not running under your user account. Make sure you are showing processes from all users, and then try again.<br></li></ul>

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James Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, I have system restore turned off. Usually any little issue like this has a quick resolution, so I'm a bit perplexed that there seems to be little to no information regarding this problem on the web. Also among the search results I get is this:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/228007-task-manager-create-elevated-shortcut.html

Creating a shortcut to an elevated Task Manager, or any shortcut that has the "Run as Administrator" box checked under the advanced properties, exhibits the same behavior. That is, the UAC appropriately prompts me for permission, and once 'Continue' is clicked, a quick command window flashes in the background and closes. Nothing more happens. At this point I am effectively constrained from running anything with administrator priveledges, USING THIS METHOD ONLY. I am able to install and uninstall programs (requires administrator priveledges to my knowledge, at least I get a UAC prompt while doing so), so to me this seems as though the string that gets run after clicking 'Continue' on the UAC prompt that is thrown from a shortcut (is the button "show processes from all users" calling a shortcut?) is either failing while running or before being run. From what I can tell the string that is trying to run (displayed when you click the 'details' button in the UAC prompt) is as follows:

"cmd.exe" /c takeown /f "C:\windows\system32\taskmgr.exe" && icacls "C:\Windows\System32\taskmgr.exe" /grant administrator:F

This string makes sense and should run if the command prompt is elevated. The problem is when the command prompt is opening (after clicking the 'Continue' button in the UAC prompt), I don't think it is opening without elevated priveledges, so it doesn't have the authority to run those commands.

I can turn off UAC and then use the task manager as expected, but this little quirk is really annoying and I am starting to like the whole UAC concept.

Answer 3

So was there ever any real solid solution to this issue that task manager is unable to show processes from all users (Vista Home premium x64.)?  After clicking the 'Continue' button, the task manager closes......  I have similar behaviour with mine when Internet Explorer 8 is running.  When it is not running, the show all user feature in task manager seems to work intermittently....

Answer 4

I have this EXACT same problem!  It carried over from Vista when I upgraded to Win7 too. Please, please help!  The only thing I can think of that may have caused it was a "Take Ownership" script I tried.  It added a menu item in the right-click menu to "take ownership."  I've since uninstalled it (using the reg file to remove "take ownership").

I get this issue when I try to configure backups, or even when Firefox or some other program wants permission to install updates.  Very annoying.  In Vista, I could turn off UAC, reboot, log back in and do the work I needed to do...then I would turn UAC back on.  In Win7, even with slider all the way down (supposedly turns off UAC), and rebooting...the issue remains.  I can't even configure backups.

Searched all over the web and this is the only thread I could find.  Any experts out there know how to fix?  What about resetting all permissions?

Thanks!!!