Tag Archives: uac

Session (ID X) remote control failed

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remote-control-failed

You may find it impossible to remote control a user from Task Manager on Windows Server and get the above error.

If it only works when using the built-in administrator account, then this may be because UAC is enabled. Task Manager needs to be UAC-elevated in order to perform the remote control task.

The long-term fix is to disable UAC like discussed in this Technet forum post.

task-manager-processes-uac

A quicker method, and if you want to keep UAC enabled, is to elevate Task Manager by going to the “Processes” tab and clicking “Show processes from all users” button. This elevates Task Manager to show all processes and then allows you to remote control.

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Mapped Network Drives and Vistas UAC

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When a non-administrator is prompted by Vista’s UAC to enter Administrator credentials for security elevation, the program that then runs under Administrator priveleges will not have access to the logged in users mapped network drives.

For example, if Mike the user was to copy some files from the mapped network drive S: to C:Windows, he would be prompted by UAC to enter Administrative priveleges. So the Administrator John enters his details but then the copy fails because the network drive is no longer available now that the user is elevated.

This scenerio happens also when installing programs that require administrative priveleges during installation from a network drive.

To fix this, an administrator can make the following registry change,

You can also download and run this registry file to import the above change to your registry,
  EnableLinkedConnections.reg (134 bytes, 2,616 hits)

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Administrative Rights on Startup/Logon in Vista

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The new User Access Control (UAC) in Windows Vista is an interesting feature. Whilst it keeps me well informed as to the security status of each program I run, it can become a hinderence to productivity.

One such issue I am having is loading programs at startup that require Administrative Rights. Currently Vista will not allow an elevated program to run on startup via the usual methods. But there is a work around using the Task Scheduler as I found on the Lavalys forum.

In order to create a task which runs with admin rights, you need to be logged in as an Administrator. These steps will not allow you to run an elevated program if you don’t already have the rights to do so.

  1. Open Task Scheduler by pressing the Start button and typing task scheduler and pressing enter.

    administrative-rights-on-startuplogon-in-vista-step1

  2. Create a new Task through the Action menu.

    administrative-rights-on-startuplogon-in-vista-step2

  3. Choose a name for the Task, and make sure Run with highest priveleges is ticked.

    administrative-rights-on-startuplogon-in-vista-step3

  4. Choose Triggers from the tabs at the top, and click New.

    administrative-rights-on-startuplogon-in-vista-step4

  5. Choose At log on from the Begin a task option.

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  6. Either pick a user, or choose “Any user” if you want this to run on log on for everyone. Make sure everything else is not ticked except for “Enabled”. Click OK.

    administrative-rights-on-startuplogon-in-vista-step6
    administrative-rights-on-startuplogon-in-vista-step6b

  7. Choose Actions from the tabs at the top, and click New.

    administrative-rights-on-startuplogon-in-vista-step7

  8. Click the Browse button and find the program you want to load at logon/startup. In the Lavalys example it would be the Everest executable. Click OK.

    administrative-rights-on-startuplogon-in-vista-step8

  9. Click the Settings tab and make sure the only checkbox ticked is Allow task to be run on demand.

    administrative-rights-on-startuplogon-in-vista-step8b

  10. Click OK again to save your new task. Check it has been created properly by clicking on Task Scheduler Library on the left pane of the Task Scheduler. Thats it, you’re done. Reboot and see if it works!

    administrative-rights-on-startuplogon-in-vista-step9

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