Admin privileges locked for certain apps

Question

I installed Kaspersky on my computer, and after running a scan, it found some miscellaneous software and deleted them. However, after the reboot, my computer lost a few of its Admin functions.

An example is the onscreen keyboard; every time I try running it, it shows, "A referral was returned from the server." When I tried fixing it by changing the "ValideAminCodeSignature" and "EnableUIADesktopTogle," I found that they were all valued at "0". So I tried changing the "Edit Group Policy" but found that I was locked out, "An administrator has blocked you from running this app."

I tried running the commands in CMD as Admin, but I got "Access is Denied." I also tried disabling my antivirus and SmartScreen, but nothing worked.

However, when I restarted the computer in Safe Mode and checked the Group Policy, I could log into the policy. However, checking the "User Account Control: Only elevate executables that are signed and validated," the policy was "Disabled."

I would appreciate some help on how to get these privileges back.

Answer 1

Hello Mat Michelle 57,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Let me help you solve the problem of locked admin rights.

Thank you for your efforts to solve this problem, I appreciate thoughtful users like you.

From your description, you were able to change the configuration of Group Policy in Safe Mode, so it is possible that Kaspersky, a software, changed the system registry and blocked the system administrator privileges.

I suggest you first uninstall this software to see if you can restore your system administrator status. If not, you may need to consult Kaspersky technical support to check the logs of this software to see if there is another effective way to resolve this issue.

Otherwise, I recommend that you use the following command to create a new local administrator account in the recovery environment and try to log in using that account.

1. In the Recovery Environment screen, select "Command Prompt" and enter the following command. net user username password /add

（username is the user name, password is the password, you can set your own）

2）Press ↵ Enter, which will then run the command and start creating the user account

3）If you see the message "Command completed successfully", it means the user has been created.

4）If you want to change the account to an administrator account, type “net localgroup administrators username /add” in the Command Prompt window, replace "username" with the name of the account you want to change, and press ↵ Enter.

5）For example, to make the user account named "Michael" an administrator, type net localgroup administrators Michael /add and press ↵ Enter.

Use this new account to log in to windows after the above operation is completed.

If there is anything not clear, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Best Regards,

Lenka-MSFT| Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Answer 2

Hello Mat Michelle 57,

Are you still experiencing this issue? Please let me know if there is any progress.

Best Regards,

Lenka | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Answer 3

Hello Mat Michelle 57,

I'm glad your question was resolved and thank you for your support of Microsoft products.

If there is anything not clear, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Best Regards,

Lenka-MSFT| Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Answer 4

Hey Lenka,

Thank you for replying, and the thorough instructions that you provided. They really came in handy.

Thanks again and I appreciate the help.

Kind regards

Mat