BleepingComputer.com: Vista Ultimate - Windows Fax & Scan Permission Problem

Recently I was trying to setup Windows Fax & Scan and was making setting changes to WFS and STUPIDLY locked even myself (administrator) out of being able to make certain changes without getting told I don't have permission to make those changes.

I did this by changing a permission setting that I thought was to lock out all other users from making changes to my settings but now even has me locked out.

After I open WFS, I try to open Fax settings under Tools only to get the following: You don't have security permissions to complete this operation. Contact your fax administrator for more information.

When I OK that, I get: Access is denied. & (Access is denied. (5, 11000001080)) under details.

It is now useless and I've gotten nowhere myself trying to correct my problem.

I went into Programs and Features and tried to uninstall WFS only to find I could only turn off the feature.

Tried that anyway and turned it back on hoping it would need to reinstall itself from the DVD but it just reactivated with the same problem still there.

I'd rather not print out everthing just so I can fax it.

Does anyone know how to correct this so I can use this feature?

You'll have to burrow through the registry to locate the keys that are affected - then take ownership of them in order to change the permissions back. Have you tried a System Restore to back before you made the changes? That should be the easiest fix.

I had to disable System Restore after I discovered it was the culprit that had used up nearly 250gb of my 320gb drive.

So much for the 15% of your HDD I had understood it to be.

I deleted most of the files within the Recovery Bin to gain back my HDD space.

After finding a forum here that indicated how to find ALL hidden files beyond the 'show hidden files', I was able to figure the above out.

So with that in mind, any pointers to where within the registry to find the necessary settings and what they should read?

Any chance settings within Local Security Policy Editor (secpol.msc - Vista Business & Ultimate only) where I could change how UAC operated (without having to actually disable UAC) help here?

I don't use the Local Security Policy stuff - so I don't have any idea of how it works.

As for a "how-to" - First...BACKUP the registry. What you're doing here is deleting some stuff that you hope is to blame - but some of it is sheer guesswork, so it's liable to "go south" very easily (and render your system inoperable). As I said, we were very, very lucky when we did it!!! Set a System Restore point also!!!

First, what we did was search for instances of Norton or Symantec in the registry.
When we found an instance, we decided if that key alone belonged to Norton/Symantec - if it did, we deleted only that key.
If we thought that the entire key above it belonged to Symantec - we deleted that entire key (and all of it's contents)

What that did was remove the stuff that was causing the error - even though it wasn't posted in plain text as a Norton/Symantec related key. It was obviously overkill, but it worked and the customer was very happy.

I'd suggest that a startup repair of Vista would be worthwhile. Here's a link: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/repair-windows-with-windows-startup-repair/

I will give your advice a try next week when I have my next days off (I work retail).

Sounds like something to do when I have adequate time to devote to such work.

Good luck!