Updated to 1511: "740: The requested operation requires elevation"

AndreyT · 16 Nov 2015

In my normal user account (belonging to Users group) I maintain a folder with a bunch of convenient administrative shortcuts, which run certain applications under "Administrator" account through 'runas' utility. Each shortcut's command line looks as

Code:

C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /user:Administrator /savecred "<command line>"

Before update to version 1511 all my shortcuts were working fine. After the update most of them suddenly stopped working. Namely, running mmc shortcuts, like

Code:

C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /user:Administrator /savecred "mmc compmgmt.msc"

produces error "740: The requested operation requires elevation".

Control panel shortcuts like

Code:

C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /user:Administrator /savecred "control appwiz.cpl"

generate a message box

Code:

::{26EE0668-A00A-44D7-9371-BEB064C98683}\0\::{7B81BE6A-CE2B-4676-A29E-EB907A5126C5}
Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.

Some applications continue to work, some don't. SysInternal's Autoruns works fine. Far Manager doesn't suffer from it either. But CPU-Z shortcut

Code:

C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /user:Administrator /savecred "C:\Utils\CPU-Z\cpuz_x64.exe"

also fails with "740: The requested operation requires elevation".

Is the something I can change (policy etc.) to restore the pre-1511 behavior?

Tupac · 17 Nov 2015

Hello AndreyT,

I can confirm this strange behaviour!
If I want to start an elevated commandbox with "runas" under the local administrator, a commandbox opens, but it
definitely does not provide administrative rights. The behaviour is the same when I use the local administrator to log on: the account does not have "real administrative" rights anymore, although everything indicates that the account is the local administrator!

The only way to start an elevated commandbox is to select the option from the start menu.
The problem does not occur on a complete fresh installed Windows 10 1511, that's for sure.

It cannot believe it, but Microsoft is able to destroy Windows with nearly every update!
Why for the hell does "an update" a fresh Windows install?
Nothing else is Windows 10 1511, a fresh Windows install that transfers some data! That's useless!

I had to reinstall for example VirtualBox and all my certificates have disappeared.
The Windows 10 1511 "update" is similar to an upgrade from Windows 8 to 10!!!

It would be nice, if someone could offer a workaround for that strange "elevated commandline bug".

Regards,
Tupac

AndreyT · 18 Nov 2015

Tupac said:

The problem does not occur on a complete fresh installed Windows 10 1511, that's for sure.

Can't confirm. I see the same "740" behavior on a clean install of 1511.

NavyLCDR · 18 Nov 2015

I don't know anything about this, but it appears to have something to do with trustlevels:

C:\>runas /showtrustlevels
The following trust levels are available on your system:
0x20000 (Basic User)

Tupac · 18 Nov 2015

NavyLCDR said:

I don't know anything about this, but it appears to have something to do with trustlevels:

C:\>runas /showtrustlevels
The following trust levels are available on your system:
0x20000 (Basic User)

On both systems the output is the same...so that should not be the problem.

I've maybe found something: if I choose the option to start an elevated command promt from the start menu, I get (on the updated system) a link in the uac message box where I can get additional information concerning the certificate. I can imagine that this could cohere with the problem...but I cannot recognize any differences between the installed Microsoft certificates...

Updated to 1511: "740: The requested operation requires elevation"-tidwc5ix.jpg

Tupac · 21 Nov 2015

To your information: I think, that I have determined the problem.
You have to set the key "FilterAdministratorToken" to "0" (to find in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System").

Regards,
Tupac

AndreyT · 24 Nov 2015

Tupac said:

To your information: I think, that I have determined the problem.
You have to set the key "FilterAdministratorToken" to "0" (to find in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System").

My machine did not have 'FilterAdministratorToken' value at that registry key. Adding it as a DWORD32 with value 0 (and rebooting) made no difference, unfortunately.

AndreyT · 24 Nov 2015

The funny part is that 'cmd.exe' does not suffer from this problem meaning that I can successfully run it as

Code:

runas.exe /user:Admin /savecred "cmd"

which in turn means that I can use

Code:

runas /user:Admin /savecred "cmd /c compmgmt.msc"

as a workaround to run Computer Management applet under 'Admin' account. Or, if I don't want to see console window hanging in the background, I can do

Code:

runas /user:Admin /savecred "cmd /c \"start compmgmt.msc\""

In other words, if this new, more restrictive behavior was implemented as an additional security measure, this is a rather lousy security measure, since it is so easy to circumvent.

alpintrekker · 17 Dec 2015

AndreyT,

experienced the same annoying 740 error after Win10 automatically updated itself to 1511, however on behalf of a pretty old Win7 related howto I was able to figure out what's going on: in this update they enabled by default Admin Approval Mode for built in Administrator. I was able to overcome it by disabling it in gpedit:

windows settings / security settings / local policies / security options / User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for built in Administrator account

good luck!