Why would Internet Explorer not run in normal user mode, but run in administrative mode?

1

The system is Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit, Internet Explorer 11. I reinstalled my operating system within the last week so there's very little in the way of "extras" on here that could be causing this.

The issue is that I cannot start IE unless I run it as an Administrator. Running as an admin works fine. Running it normally will just result in the IE window flashing open and then immediately closing. Looking at Task Manager, it's definitely quitting (i.e. not just getting hidden or anything).

I see nothing in the Windows logs (application or system).

I'm new to Win 8.1 and IE 11, so perhaps there's some good reason for this? Any idea what's happening?

Chris Simmons

Posted 2013-11-07T04:16:19.417

Reputation: 247

1run Process Monitor in background and capture the IE run 2 times (with admin rights and normal rihgts). Now compare the differences. – magicandre1981 – 2013-11-07T04:56:15.920

It's probably because you reinstalled your OS without formatting the hard drive, and used NTFS originally on the drive - the folders are locked down to a user (your user) who no longer exists - the Security IDentifier or SID changes when you reinstall, for local accounts. – Mark Allen – 2013-11-07T07:38:21.983

@mark-allen, thanks but no. The drive was clean (re-partitioned and re-formatted) on reinstall. – Chris Simmons – 2013-11-07T15:02:07.667

@magicandre1981, I'll follow this advice tonight when I get home. Thank you. – Chris Simmons – 2013-11-07T15:04:34.177

@magicandre1981, OK I've done what you suggested, but I wouldn't know where to start. Even filtering for just iexplore.exe, there are 9000+ events for the normal run and 20000+ events for the admin run. I've tried filtering out all SUCCESS records, but nothing looks glaringly wrong. I'm thinking I don't REALLY care too much. I can run IE as Admin. Still a tad frustrating. – Chris Simmons – 2013-11-08T01:59:34.463

1OK, one thing I noticed in the normal/failed run: a SHARING VIOLATION on AppData\Local\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Recovery\Active{SOME GUID}.dat

There were no sharing violations in the admin run. – Chris Simmons – 2013-11-08T02:03:42.813

Answers

1

I was also having the same issue and i was able to resolve this by doing the following -

Go to IE > Internet Options > Security > Uncheck "Enable Protected Mode"

Sourav

Posted 2013-11-07T04:16:19.417

Reputation: 11

1This actually works, but why? I know that protected mode runs on top of a virtual file system instead of accessing files directly. Could it be that my user has insufficient directory permissions for the virtual filesystem? – Steven Liekens – 2015-04-19T17:54:05.393

0

Try checking the "start in" and "target" information under the properties menu for IE. I've altered that information before in order to run as administrator.

The "target" field should be a simple path ending in an exe extension while the "start in" field should have system variables (such as %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%).

Zach L

Posted 2013-11-07T04:16:19.417

Reputation: 212

Asked: 2013-11-07T04:16:19.417

Viewed: 7 648 times

Active: 2017-08-14T12:26:36.087