Windows 8 Suddenly many operationms require Run as Administrator

[Jon Fleming]

Of course this is Windows 8, with Start8 and ModernMix to make it bearable. My account is an administrator. UAC is off (I build a lot of live CDs and flash drives that can't be built with UAC on).

For the last week or so I've had problems running Google Drive or choosing Run when I download a program. For some reason known only to a few Google Drive wants to keep a Python interpreter in C:\Users\{UserName}\Appdata\Local\Temp, and it isn't allowed to load it unless it's run as administrator. I can fix that, but what's really annoying is that no setup program can be run directly from the browser. I have to save it, open up downloads, and run it as administrator.

What could have changed to provoke this behavior?

 

[davehc]

I cannot read the exact problem, from your posts, but, if I understand correctly, you could try deleting the entire contents of "C:\Users\{UserName}\Appdata\Local\Temp"- I do this weekly, as part of my maintenance. If the action worries you, then, instead of deleting, in the first instance, move the contents to another temporary location.
The problem is probably "Google drive" related. I do not use it, but maybe a member with more knowledge in it's use, can suggest a method of clearing the fault

 

[Jon Fleming]

If it's running, Google Drive won't let me delete its Python interpreter from the Temp directory. If it's not running and I delete its Python interpreter from the Temp directory, Google Drive stops working. So the workaround is to remove Google Drive from the Run key in the registry, add a shortcut in the Startup folder, and set that shortcut to run as administrator. The Temp directory isn't supposed to be used for permanent program components, but that's what they are doing.

But the major irritation is downloading a program and running it directly. In a browser I click on a download link. The browser shows a popup asking what I want to do. I click run. The download completes. An error dialog pops up saying that setup can't access something or other, access is denied.

And when I save the download to the download folder, I almost always have to run that downlaoded setup as administrator.