can't save to C:

gib88

Baseband Member
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Hello,

I have a problem saving files to the C: drive on my new Windows 10 computer. For example, if I want to save a simple Notepad file, it tells me I don't have permissions to do so.

I followed this guide to activate the elevated system administrator account, and I logged in as that administrate:

How to enable the hidden Windows 10 administrator account - gHacks Tech News

But I still can't save to the C: drive.

Why not?
 
Last edited:
It might be a virtual drive that is actually a partition on a larger drive.
Where is your documents folder located?
 
Have you tried turning off UAC? Did you "run as administrator" when you ran notepad? I'm not sure if that's required with the built in Administrator account but it's worth a try.
 
It might be a virtual drive that is actually a partition on a larger drive.
Where is your documents folder located?

I think you're right. I have a C: drive (with the OS on it) and a D: drive (empty). I really don't think I have two physical drives on my laptop.

Documents is on C:

crazyman143 said:
Have you tried turning off UAC? Did you "run as administrator" when you ran notepad? I'm not sure if that's required with the built in Administrator account but it's worth a try.

Yes, if I run Notepad as administrator, it let's me save to the C: drive. But then my next question is: how do I set it up so that I don't have to run as an administrator? I AM an administrator--the highest level administrator--I should HAVE to run anything as administrator.
 
Yes, if I run Notepad as administrator, it let's me save to the C: drive. But then my next question is: how do I set it up so that I don't have to run as an administrator? I AM an administrator--the highest level administrator--I should HAVE to run anything as administrator.

check the first two suggestions on this page. Looks like you may need to make some local policy changes as well as disabling UAC. Obviously what you're doing is going against the grain of what's recommended but it sounds like you know that.
 
You can set anything to always run as admin by default in the file settings.

crazyman143 said:
check the first two suggestions on this page. Looks like you may need to make some local policy changes as well as disabling UAC. Obviously what you're doing is going against the grain of what's recommended but it sounds like you know that.

That didn't seem to help. I set the user control settings for my account to "never notify" but it still doesn't let me save notepad files to the C: drive unless I specifically telling to run Notepad as an administrator.

The only thing I couldn't follow in the link you sent me crazyman is the second suggestion under "2 - Disable Approval Mode". Step 3 says to start secpol.msc but my system doesn't recognize that program.

In any case, I can see the advantages of forcing everyone (even administrators) to manually run things as administrators in order to do things like save on the C: drive. It just didn't make sense to me logically: things should just run as administrator if the user IS an administrator. It didn't seem logical to me that the system couldn't figure that out automatically.
 
If you don't have secpol it's probably because you have windows home edition. In that case, you can use regedit to create the policy.

Navigate to here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
Then look for a key called "System" If it doesn't exist, right-click and select New to create it.

Then within System, right click and create a new DWORD value called "EnableLUA" with a value of 1.

If you want more details check this page. If you're uncomfortable using registry editor, I wouldn't recommend doing this.
 
The policy seems to be there already:

Enable_LUA.png
 
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