Q:

What can cause a reduction of administrator permissions in Windows 7?

I have a Windows 7 machine that normally runs from an account with administrator permissions. The User settings in the control panel confirm it is listed as an administrator account.
Something has changed in the system, and the account now has reduced permissions. For example, the device manager console utility DevCon used to run from any CMD script. Now it only runs if the CMD windows is run as administrator.  AutoRuns used to be able to directly start RegEdit from the Autoruns UI.  Now AutoRuns has to re-start itself with administrator rights to be able to start RegEdit.  Many other dialog boxes and operations are asking for permission that didn't before. 
What could cause the reduction of permissions on this administrator account? How can I fix it?  Are there any tools for debugging permissions and account issues? 

A:

It sounds like UAC was enabled or increased the security for it. If you want to turn it off (which I wouldn't recommend due to the security it provides), you can do so in the control panel under users. 
Click change user account control. If the slider has it enabled, you can drag it down to disable. Reboot the system, and then try again.

