Sometimes you want to perform a task that requires an Administrator command line prompt, so how do you get to the Administrator command line prompt? A regular user command line prompt looks like this:

Now here is an example of an Administrator command line prompt. Not how it says Administrator in the top left, and instead the operating from the User directory, the Administrator window operates from the system32 directory.

There are two ways to load the Administrator command line prompt window.

1) Type cmd into the start menu search box, and then press the shortcut keys Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

2) Click the Windows Logo Icon in the bottom left corner, then All Programs → Accessories → right-click on Command Prompt → left-click on Run as Administrator

TrustedInstaller on some Windows Vista systems can essentially hang for several minutes consuming 100% of the CPU cycles, which makes the computer unusable until the TrustedInstaller.exe process terminates itself. The purpose of TrustedInstaller is to act as the gatekeeper and protect essential system resources, such as files, folders, and registry keys, that are critical to keep Windows Vista stable. When a program installed on your computer tries to access system files, TrustedInstaller starts automatically to prevent the program from modifying critical system files. On startup TrustedInstaller can sometimes consume 100% of the system resources, or less, to do its job. Microsoft will most likely address this, and other issues in their first service pack for Vista which is expected soon.

For background and FYI purposes here is how TrustedInstaller is defined.

TrustedInstaller Windows Services definition:
Adds, modifies, and removes applications provided as a Windows Installer (*.msi) package. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.

TrustedInstaller Other definition:
trustedinstaller.exe is a Windows Modules Installer from Microsoft Corporation belonging to Microsoft® Windows® Operating System. This enables management of Windows updates.

There are two ways to stop TrustedInstaller from causing problems by consuming all your system resources during startup.

1) Modify Service Setting

To quickly access the Services window use the shortcut keys Win+r. Win stands for Windows Logo Key. In the Run box type:

control services

… and hit enter.

The long way to access the Services window is to click the Windows Logo icon in the bottom left corner –> Control Panel –> System Maintenance –> Administrative Tools –> Services. Now scroll down until you see Windows Installer, and double-click it to open the dialog window.

On the General tab set the Startup type selection to Manual.

Click the Recovery tab, then change the First Failure selection from Restart the Service to Take No Action.

Now click OK. When you reboot your computer the TrustedInstaller should not start, but it will start when programs try to modify a critical system file, folder, or registry key.

2) Kill TrustedInstaller.exe on Startup

To eliminate altering the Service settings, I have written a script that will kill the TrustedInstaller.exe when your computer startsup. This should keep TrustedInstaller from consuming resources during startup, but still function properly when needed. First click the Windows Logo Icon –> All Programs, now right-click Startup, and select Open.

Click here to download the TrustedInstaller killer script, unzip it, and copy the file into the Startup folder. Now close the folder.

Each time the computer starts up you’ll see a black command window flash. That is the script killing the TrustedInstaller.exe process automatically.

To remove the script simply delete it from the Startup folder. You can also put the TrustedInstaller killer script on your desktop to kill the script manually with a double-click on the file.

Are you getting "Unable to save permission changes on file_name. Access is denied." error messages when trying to modify a file or change permissions on a file that has TrustedInstaller as its owner? It is possible to take ownership away from TrustedInstaller, and give it to your Administrative account, but it is not wise to mess with System Files. TrustedInstaller is a special service that manages “essential” resources (system files, folders, and registry keys) that are critical to the operation of Windows Vista. To prevent application and operating system failure, these resources are protected using Windows File Protection (WFP) in such a way that applications or users cannot modify these resources. The way this protection is implemented is by setting an ACL on these resources only to allow only the TrustedInstaller user to modify them. When setup applications try to modify a protected system resource it will not get an error as mentioned above, however Vista will detect the installation program, and the request will be accepted and a success code will be returned, but the resource will not be modified. This is why you may have the need to take permission of a system resource, so you can modify it manually.

If you gave ownership of a system resource to yourself, so you could modify the resource, and now you want to give ownership back to TrustedInstaller, simply follow these steps:

Right-click on the file and choose Properties
Click Security tab
Click Advanced button
Click Owner tab
Click Edit button
Click Other User or Group and type in:

NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller

Press Ok on all dialogs until all property dialogs are closed

For instructions on how-to take ownership from TrustedInstaller, and give ownership to yourself to modify a file click here.

Windows Vista, like Windows XP, comes with a free Disk Defragmenter. Defragmenting the hard drive on your computer makes it faster by organizing the files that have been spread (fragmented) across the disk closer together to allow them to be found and used quicker. It’s best to set the Disk Defragmenter on a schedule so you don’t have to worry about doing it yourself.

To open Disk Defragmenter go to Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –> Disk Defragmenter

Click Modify schedule.

To optimize the speed you’ll get from using the Disk Defragmenter, schedule it to run at least once a day when you are not using your computer. System performance can slow down while the Disk Defragmenter is running.

You may or may not notice a big difference if you’re hard drive is not heavily fragmented right now, but Disk Defragmenter will keep everything organized so you’ll never see that slow down caused by heavy fragmentation.

There are a few free, and better defragmenter programs such as Power Defragmenter, and Auslogics Disk Defrag, but the best on the market is Diskeeper, which was hired by Microsoft to develop the first Windows defrag program, plus Diskeeper can do some very special tasks like organizing the MFT (Master File Table) to get your disk completely reorganized. Diskeeper has a 30 day trial, but it cost money to use it after that. The free Disk Defragmenter that comes with Windows will meet most everyone’s needs.

The other day I discussed backing up the registry, and restoring it if Windows got messed up after installing a program. Today I installed a Microsoft hotfix that didn’t work, restoring the registry didn’t work, and gave an error instead. The hotfix did not show up in my program list, so it I wasn’t able to uninstall it, but I wanted to remove it completely. What next? Fortunately for Windows Vista users Microsoft created System Restore to address this exact situation. Here’s how to use System Restore. Click the windows button in the bottom left corner of your screen, then click Control Panel.

Click System and Maintenance.

Click Backup and Restore Center.

Now scroll to the bottom of the window and click Use System Restore to fix problems and undo changes to Windows.

There is a faster and easier way to start System Restore. Click the windows button in the bottom left corner of your screen, then click Run. Now type in either rstrui or rstrui.exe, and hit enter.

System Restore creates restore points automatically, and recommends them. I won’t discuss choosing a different restore point in this article. Since I used System Restore right after I installed the hotfix the restore point was the exact point that I wanted to restore my system to. Click Next.

After confirming the restore point is correct click finish. The compter will reboot, and work its magic. Don’t unplug or try to stop the restore process, which continues after your machine reboots.

Once the System Restore is completed you will see a success message.

Just in case the System Restore made unwanted changes, the option exists to Undo System Restore. To start the undo process go through the directions above or just type rstrui into the run command line.

System Restore affects Windows system files, programs, and registry settings. It also can make changes to scripts, batch files, and other types of executable files on your computer. It does not affect personal files, such as e?mail, documents, or photos, so it cannot help you restore a deleted file. I’ll discuss restoring files from backup in another article. System Restore can do a lot more than just a simple registry backup and restore.

If System Restore were to damage your windows files, and cause it to act erratically, or prevented windows from booting, you will need to use Startup Repair, which I will discuss in a different article.