Strange access demied problem

From: Jes (anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 12/09/03 

Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 21:11:27 -0800

Hi,
I have a very odd problem, I have only seen on my
computer.

I have serched the knowledgebase to find similiar but non-
applicable solutions.

I use XP pro and my normal logon has full admin
priveleges. I am the only user of the computer.

When I click on the time in the system tray or when I
click on an item in control panel and in various other
places I receive the following alert, warning or error:

"Windows cannot access the specified device, path or
file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to
acsess the item"

Not so odd you say.
Ok, well this first happened when I was still an XP pro
novice over a year ago. I did a restore and all was well.

Well over the past few months and almost continuously
over the las two weeks I have had to perform restores to
regain my permissions.

I'll do a restore, clean up the registry, defrag, kill
the temp files, do a virus scan and spware scan, etc,
then reboot and check i still have permission, then make
a new restore point. as little as Hours later, sometimes
even without a reboot, I lose these permissions again.

Now instead of restoring, I have gone into safe mode as
admin and looked up my permissions for that account and
they all say I have full administrative priveliges.

I have changed to more limited permissions, rebooted,
changed back to full priveleges, all to no avail.
Only a restore gets me back.

There are KB articles that address similiar issues, such
as what to do when one does not have permissions and one
which states the permission does not derive just from
being an admin.

Article Q323309 in the KB states:
"SYMPTOMS
When your Windows XP Professional-based computer is
configured as a stand-alone computer or a workgroup
computer, effective permissions may not be correctly
displayed for user accounts. This problem may occur even
when security is correctly applied. Specifically, the
Windows XP Professional security configuration user
interface (UI) may indicate that users do not have
permissions to access a file or folder, even if their
user accounts are included in groups that are explicitly
or indirectly granted access. "

Though I do have a standalone and I di have simple file
sharing turned off, this has little bearing as my problem
is simply that I have but suddenly lose permissions.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

P.s. I have a firewall and i have all my win updates.
Persistence of problem has been independent of any
updates. It's happening too often argggg. :)

Aloha
Jes

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