4

Run into a little bit of a snag with Windows 10, and it's a fairly well known one - the problem is that I'm struggling to find a Windows 10 compatible fix that actually works!

It's the old "regular users have to input their password to load task manager" chestnut again. How, exactly, do I work around this? Seeing as that inputting any valid credentials in gives you access to the task manager, I don't see why this is needed. I've mucked around with the UAC GPOs to try and get it to work, but that hasn't helped. I've also tried to start task manager with Windows, which in itself would be ideal as I can do that without elevation - but I can't see how to start it minimized, as everything I've seen simply doesn't take effect.

Any solutions would be much appreciated. As to why our users need task manager; well, Microsoft Office likes to tie itself in knots every now and again. It's much better for everyone's productivity to be able to actually kill the rogue tasks themselves!

Luke Milum
  • 51
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
  • Can you be more specific? I can log onto Windows 10 with a standard (non admin user) and Task Manager opens just fine (?). – Bill_Stewart Feb 27 '17 at 21:31
  • I know, that's what it _should_ be doing. But for whatever reason, probably an old GPO somewhere, we don't get that - it prompts for a password if you're not an admin! – Luke Milum Mar 01 '17 at 08:38
  • What password does it prompt for? Is it a UAC prompt? (Please be more specific.) – Bill_Stewart Mar 03 '17 at 19:36
  • It is a UAC prompt, yes. It asks for admin details, but in fact it is actually just fine with any user, as long as the details are correct. Interestingly enough, I've only observed this behaviour on our Windows 10 Anniversary edition computers - the one remaining on version 1511 (which has a broken taskbar... still) worked just fine, even with the same GPOs! – Luke Milum Mar 06 '17 at 10:49
  • Build a brand new Windows 10 machine, do not join it to a domain, and update it fully. Do you see the behavior? If not, then you know the behavior is likely caused by one of the GPO settings. – Bill_Stewart Mar 06 '17 at 17:44
  • A new Windows 10 machine off the domain indeed does not show those settings - but then, nor does a pre-Anniversary edition one on it, from what I saw. Most odd! – Luke Milum Mar 08 '17 at 14:18
  • Correct. This means that you are going to need to track this one down on your own. We can't do it from afar for you since we don't have access to the computer in question and we cannot see your screen. – Bill_Stewart Mar 08 '17 at 20:35
  • I wasn't expecting that, I was hoping someone who had experienced something similar - and from a Google search, we're not the only ones, although there are few Windows 10 fixes out there - could provide me with some clues. – Luke Milum Mar 10 '17 at 09:08
  • "I was hoping someone...could provide me with some clues" - I believe I did that. You will need to do some detective work to figure out what policy or setting is causing the behavior. Once you figure it out, you can write the answer here for the benefit of others. – Bill_Stewart Mar 10 '17 at 19:38
  • I have exaclty the same problem with Win 10 1607, 1703 and the leatest technical preview. Tomorrow I'll review my GPOs. – Binarylab Aug 13 '17 at 10:23
  • This is happening to me - it started somewhat randomly, any domain creds work, and I don't know what changed. To make things stranger, I have multiple PCs and it's only happening on one. My guess is that something doesn't have non-elevated access to something on one PC, which makes me suspect Registry perms – Coruscate5 Dec 07 '17 at 16:47
  • Are your users local administrators? – SamErde Jun 09 '18 at 01:57

2 Answers2

1

Finally I have found the solution to this. Props go to a reddit post.

The issue is with the group policy "load and unload device drivers". Computer configuration -> Policies -> windows settings -> security settings -> local policies -> user rights assignment -> load and unload device drivers.

if this is set to a group the limited user is a member of (everyone, domain users, etc) then the prompt is displayed. if you set it instead to Administrators, the prompt is suppressed and everything works fine. I am not sure the ramifications of changing this value as it has been set for us since time immemorial. Seems to have to do with accepting unsigned device drivers. If everything suddenly stops working then i will have to set it back, but the setting goes all the way back to win2k so it may no longer be relevant (except to F up my shiz)...

Zoobra McFly
  • 11
  • 3
0

Run this, and logoff/on

setx.exe __COMPAT_LAYER runAsInvoker

If you have Admin rights and run this then some commands [e.g. gpedit.msc] will no longer auto-elevate and you will need to "Run as Administrator"

opscc
  • 1