C:\Windows\system32\mmc.exe Windows cannot access the specified file. No Permissions

Question

Running Server 2019. It's a Primary DC, DNS, and DHCP for my network.

I was trying to update and my update failed. In trying to resolve that, I now have this new error. When I go to the control panel and try to access the Disk Management snapin, it tells me:

C:\Windows\system32\mmc.exe
Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.

If I go to the path directly and run mmc it runs fine. It also does this for C:\Windows\system32\control.exe when trying to change adapter options.

I've run sfc \scannow and it reported no problems. I'm at a loss as to what to do next.

Answer 1

Can you validate that the following policy is set to either Enabled or Disabled

Security Settings / Local Policies / Security Options / User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for the Built-in Administrator account.

There is a known issue with Windows 2019 as soon as you promote the server to a Domain Controller, this policy is reset to "no value". This cause a lot of issues.

hth

Answer 2

Start /
Type Local Policies and click on local policies

Answer 3

Just promoted WS2019 to domain controller, could not open network adapters. Checked the policy was blank, not enabled or disabled changing it did nothing. Log on with my user domain account all ok. Account Logon as administrator gets error! I tried the domain switch on another session as     domain\ administrator, problem solved. I believe I was logging in as local admin not DC admin. that is why policy was blank. I checked local accounts, were removed as at was now a DC. Now that I did that I don’t use domain switch it gives me DC admin profile anyway. Must be left overs from workgroup settings.