Admin Account But No Permissions To Access Files. Why?

abrogard · 04 Apr 2018

I am logged onto win10 with an administrator account yet I keep getting 'no permission' messages.

Not generally but this morning for instance in IIS.

I couldn't read the log files in IIS.

So I simply went to Explorer and found the log file and tried to look there and couldn't.

I got a message that I'd need admin permissions to view them, did I want to continue? So I said yes and ahead we went, I viewed the files.

Now what's going on that the machine apparently doesn't know I've got admin permissions and then gives me access on the grounds that I have admin permissions and can therefore grant myself admin permissions?

I am trying to restore my machine to where it was before I got a system disk crash and I'm finding all kinds of hassles like this. Something to do with Win10 having been 'updated' since back then and now, I think, maybe.

Samuria · 04 Apr 2018

In a lot of cases its just the UAC set to protect the pc so its a saftey issue were it stops you editing sensertive files until you say you want to run as admin. Some folders are system which is above admin so this stops a user interfering with windows files this is so malware even as admin cant screw up your pc. You can reduce the UAC but its not recomened

abrogard · 04 Apr 2018

well that makes sense, thanks. but it's going a bit too far when you're in IIS as admin and can't even view the log files, isn't it? no setting in IIS to remove that restriction? and my IIS isn't viewable from the web, i.e. from my IP address in my own browser - what I get is my router instead. (though I get my IIS when i input 'localhost') would that have anything to do with this stuff I wonder?

I better learn something about UAC's maybe. I know nothing right now.

Bree · 04 Apr 2018

abrogard said:

I am logged onto win10 with an administrator account ...

I couldn't read the log files in IIS.
So I simply went to Explorer and found the log file and tried to look there and couldn't.

I got a message that I'd need admin permissions to view them, did I want to continue? So I said yes and ahead we went, I viewed the files.

The folder C:\inetpub\logs is owned by SYSTEM and by default your user account does not have permissions there, though the Administrators group does. Although you are signed in with an administrator account, unless you explicitly launch a process with 'run as administrator' you are running everything as a standard user (this is for your own protection as Samurai pointed out).

You were asked if you wanted access and when you said 'Yes' you used your administrator rights to add your user account to the permissions. You should now have all the permission you need to read log files in IIS and should no longer have the problems you had this morning.

These are the default permissions. If you look at the permissions for your log folder you'll find your user account has been added with full control.

Admin Account But No Permissions To Access Files. Why?-inetpub-logs-security.png

abrogard · 04 Apr 2018

Yep. I can view them now from within IIS. And that'll hold true after next boot up? I'll find out soon enough. :)

M A Weiss · 23 Nov 2021

I'm building a new IIS server to replace the Win 7 server that died Saturday due to a power surge. The new server runs Win 10 Pro.
I'm logged as Admin, but having enormous problems just opening files, and IIS is unable to do a number of things such as Web Platform installer fails to download modules I request, the links to click on for help and logs do nothing, and when I try to open any log file such as iis.log, I get an error saying that I do not have permission to open the file!
This never happened on Win 10 installations I made myself, but this is a purchased machine with a preinstalled Win 10 on it.
I saw this thread while searching for solution to this problem. It's such a mystery and seems like no one has had this exact problem or found a solution to it.