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After searching high and low for many days I finally found something that makes the internal SD Card reader on my laptop work. It's not an issue with the "Microsoft WPD Filesystem Driver" like most people say that loads up and refuses to start when I put the card in, it's actually UAC.

post-110024-1184770780.jpg

If I try to open my G: drive (the letter assigned to the SD Card when it is inserted) I get...

post-110024-1184769682.jpg

But if I create a shortcut to CMD, right click, Run as Administrator, do a few cd's and dir's, I get...

post-110024-1184769806_thumb.jpg

See all my pics in there?

So I want to see something like this in a GUI. So I start up FileZilla as Administrator...

post-110024-1184769831_thumb.jpg

Again, there's my pics.

So is there some way I can start an explorer window to G: as Administrator? I'd like a shortcut that doesn't ask my to allow it or anything if possible but even just having the option to right click and go to Run As Administrator would be nice.

I tried setting folders to open in different processes, creating a shortcut to "explorer.exe G:", running it as Administrator but I still get the same error. If I open explorer.exe from my Administrator-enabled command prompt I also still have the problem.

Sorry for the super long post but I figured the more information I provided, the better someone would be able to help me.

I also tried changing the permissions on the drive but they wouldn't stick for some reason. Is there any way to make it so I don't need Admin privilege on this drive?

I'd prefer not to disable UAC completely. I suppose I could install a 3rd party file manager and run that as Administrator but my laptop's poor hard drive is a little low on space with 4 OS's + data on it...

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Oh man, that is a thorny problem. I, too, have dreamed of being able to run explorer.exe with elevated privileges so I would just need to go through UAC once and then do all of my cleaning of Program Files or the start menu without multiple UAC dialogs nagging me.

Here's a thought that I may or may not have tried before: in explorer's Folder Options, enable spawning separate processes for each explorer window (I don't remember the text). You might be able to get an elevated explorer.exe that way. I have a feeling that the "original" explorer.exe that displays the taskbar and start menu is locked down to prevent elevation - thus the inability to run from a shortcut or command prompt.

Of course, this'll eat up additional memory with each Windows Explorer window that is open.

Close all open documents and such.

Start Task Manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC).

Click "Show processes from all users" button and confirm UAC prompt.

Find and select explorer.exe. Right click it and select "End Process Tree". Confirm.

You are left only with Task Manager open (and some background services, etc.).

Select File, New Task and type explorer to it.

Enjoy elevated explorer.

Oh man, that is a thorny problem. I, too, have dreamed of being able to run explorer.exe with elevated privileges so I would just need to go through UAC once and then do all of my cleaning of Program Files or the start menu without multiple UAC dialogs nagging me.

Here's a thought that I may or may not have tried before: in explorer's Folder Options, enable spawning separate processes for each explorer window (I don't remember the text). You might be able to get an elevated explorer.exe that way. I have a feeling that the "original" explorer.exe that displays the taskbar and start menu is locked down to prevent elevation - thus the inability to run from a shortcut or command prompt.

Of course, this'll eat up additional memory with each Windows Explorer window that is open.

I tried that (I read it somewhere else as well) but it gave the same resulting error.

Close all open documents and such.

Start Task Manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC).

Click "Show processes from all users" button and confirm UAC prompt.

Find and select explorer.exe. Right click it and select "End Process Tree". Confirm.

You are left only with Task Manager open (and some background services, etc.).

Select File, New Task and type explorer to it.

Enjoy elevated explorer.

Wouldn't this make my explorer ALWAYS elevated? I really only want one elevated folder or the ability to easily elevate on and off.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Wouldn't this make my explorer ALWAYS elevated? I really only want one elevated folder or the ability to easily elevate on and off.

Again, start Task Manager but this time do not click the "Show processes from all users" button, terminate explorer.exe and start it again.

Or reboot/logoff.

Close the Task Manager and start it again.

(It needs to display the "Show processes from all users" button for the "un-elevation" to work)

I couldn't get that to show up once I was already running the elevated explorer (because my elevated explorer would also start an elevated Task Manager).

However, I must've done the separate process for folders suggestion wrong before because if I have that enabled and then use Task Manager in elevated mode to start another explorer then it works fine.

Thanks for the help guys. It works now.

I spoke too soon. The method I mentioned above only works if there is only 1 instance of explorer already running.

If I have two explorers running (the main one and say one folder open) then I still get access denied when I try to run another as admin.

As far as I can tell (I just did some testing). This is because the Run folders in a separate process just means you have your main explorer and another for all your folders. From watching my task manager with this option enabled and opening various folders, it does NOT create a new process for each folder you have open (which is what I assumed it would do).

Still annoying.

I'll stick with just running Directory Opus as admin I guess...

Edited by unL33T
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