Windows 10: UAC: Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file

Hi Everyone,
I am upgrading some computers at my local city office from W7 to W10 (1909). They have a domain server, so naturally I'm linking them to that once I complete the upgrade. I mention this because I have an odd issue going on and am unsure what the solution might be.

I was on the phone working with their software company to get their in-house software installed and they wanted me to disable UAC. However, when I type in UAC in the search box and then click the UAC listing in the menu, I get the following error message:
Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permission to access the item

What's even stranger is that I determined I can access the UAC dialog through Control Panel or by Navigating to C:\Windows\System32\UsaerAccountControlSettings.exe just fine. To add to this, this ONLY happens on the Domain Administrator account. It doesn't happen on other standard user accounts (I can access UAC, just can't, of course, make any changes to UAC since those accounts don't have the appropriate permissions). I also can access UAC just fine on the single, locally created account. It's doing the same thing on all 4 computers I've upgraded.

I've tried dism ... /restorehealth and sfc /scannow, neither of which resolved the issue.

(I'm tempted to try downgrading to version 1903 in the event this may be a 1909 bug, but haven't yet done so. I don't have a lot of confidence that will solve the issue, however.)

:)

 

Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file


Hello.

Just installed Win10.

I'm having trouble both opening and renaming/changing some files. I had no trouble before on win8.
I am administrator with elevated previliges. I changed UAC level to the lowest.

I keep getting this error:
"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item"

any ideas?
thanks

 

Microsoft Photos can't access specified device, path or file

Hello Suraj,

One of the possible reason why you are getting an error message "Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item",
may be due to the corrupted shortcut, if the file needs a permission or
error if the shortcut or installation is attempting to access a location that is not currently available such as a networked or a removable drive. In order for us to assist you better, we'd like to ask the following:

• Did you make any changes to your computer before experiencing this issue? If yes, tell us more about it.
• What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?
• Have you checked if you are using the administrator access? If yes, do you have any guess or standard profile on your computer?
• Which application are you using to access photos? Is it an application that you download from the Microsoft Store?

Meanwhile, we recommend checking the article about "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file" error when you try to install, update or start a program or file
on this link. It's applicable to Windows 7, this is to guide us to
isolate the main issue why you are unable to access the photos on your device.

We are looking forward to your reply.

 

Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file Useraccountcontrolsettings.exe

I have re imaged the machine, and I'm still having the exact same problem. This system was joined to the domain, I'm logged in with a user with domain admin privileges if I go to the search box and type in uac, it comes up in the search box. If I try to
click on it I get the error C:\windows\system32\useraccountcontrolsettings.exe Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.

I just browsed out to that path and found the file, if I right click and run as administrator it opened successfully. What gives??