Symptoms
After you turn on User Account Control in Windows Vista or newer operating systems, programs may be unable to access some network locations. This problem may also occur when you use the command prompt to access a network location.
Note To turn on User Account Control, you click Allow in a User Account Control dialog box.
Cause
This problem occurs because User Account Control treats members of the Administrators group as standard users.
When a member of the Administrators group logs on to a Windows Vista-based and newer computer that has User Account Control enabled, the user runs as a standard user. Standard users are members of the Users group. If you are a member of the Administrators group and if you want to perform a task that requires a full administrator access token, User Account Control prompts you for approval. For example, you are prompted if you try to edit security policies on the computer. If you click Allow in the User Account Control dialog box, you can then complete the administrative task by using the full administrator access token.
When an administrator logs on to Windows Vista or newer, the Local Security Authority (LSA) creates two access tokens. If LSA is notified that the user is a member of the Administrators group, LSA creates the second logon that has the administrator rights removed (filtered). This filtered access token is used to start the user’s desktop. Applications can use the full administrator access token if the administrator user clicks Allow in a User Account Control dialog box.
If a user is logged on to Windows Vista or newer, and if User Account Control is enabled, a program that uses the user’s filtered access token and a program that uses the user’s full administrator access token can run at the same time. Because LSA created the access tokens during two separate logon sessions, the access tokens contain separate logon IDs.
When network shares are mapped, they are linked to the current logon session for the current process access token. This means that, if a user uses the command prompt (Cmd.exe) together with the filtered access token to map a network share, the network share is not mapped for processes that run with the full administrator access token.
Workaround
To work around this issue, use the net use command together with a UNC name to access the network location. For example, at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
net use \\< computername >\< sharename > /user:< username >
