so here’s the problem. I’m trying to delete a file in my program files folder, but the computer won’t let me. i know for a fact that the computer doesn’t think i am the administrator, when in fact i am the one and only user on my own PC. is there a way to make the computer have the “run as administrator” always on? it’s been bugging me for quite some time.
thank you so much.
im assuming your using vista or windows 7. if you go to control panel> users> then there is an option for something called user account control. turn this off and it wont ask for your permission all the time. and that message only normally comes up if its in a protected area of the hard drive like the program folders etc.
i have the user account control off, but nothings working. i have vista, is there any other steps i need to take?
Step Nr 1 - Get Win 7 
Control Panel >> User Accounts >> Change Account Type (obviously, you need admin privileges to change that)
In linux, you should never use the root user for day-to-day stuff, but in windows, you pretty much have to, it’s so painful.
A little tip; navigate to C:\Windows, and right-click on explorer.exe, and you should see Run as Administrator as an option, which will force a file browser with admin privileges.
You need to change your account type to administrator as was aforementioned. However, running as an administrator full time, while helpful, is not a very good idea. Example, say you were to get a virus while running as admin, the virus can do anything it wants with full permission. Especially if you are doing a lot of surfing on “questionable” sites of any kind, you will just want to run as a limited user and use the admin password to enable things when you need it…
Maybe something in this suite of tools could help. They are pretty powerful though, read the instructions!
It is nice just to download the whole suite rather than just one at a time.
If you still can’t do it after what people above have advised, it may have something to do with the file you are deleting.
Some programs especially anti-viruses will not allow you to delete them. Also if the program/file is currently in use, it won’t be deleted.
Make sure the program (I assume it is related to an application as it is in the program files folder) is not running.
Also check in the taskmgr.exe and kill any processes related to it.