Unable to set power options as a limited user

[357mag]

I'm currently logged in as a limited user, and I want to set some power options for the hard drive and monitor. But when I set them and then click OK it says:

Power Policy Manager unable to set active policy

Access is denied


Only thing I can think of is that you can only set power options when you are logged in as an administrator. The thing that's weird is though that I thought I monkeyed around with this before and I was able to set power options when I was logged in as a limited user. But I could be wrong here.

So am I correct in assuming you must be logged in as administrator to do this? So then if I wanted to change the power options for the limited user "Tim" I would first have to change his account type to administrator, then set the power options to what I want, then change his account type back to "limited" and then it would be done?

[kev7555]

You said it. You must have administrator priveleges to perform many such operations in XP. You should be able to make changes to that account by logging on as Administrator and making the changes from there. You don't necessarily have to change the other account to administrator privileges and then remove them.

-Kev

[357mag]

Yeah, but how do I make changes to Power Options in the "Tim" account unless I'm logged into the "Tim" account? When I log in as administrator and then open up Power Options, it shows the options that I've already set for the administrator. I want to duplicate those same options for the "Tim" account.

I don't see how you can change the power options in the "Tim" account when your currently logged into the administrator account.

[kev7555]

Well in that case, changing his account to administrator privileges takes about 30 seconds...

[Statica]

I would NEVER recommend that you make someone else an administrator or give someone an admin privilege.
In your situation what I would recommend is that you login to your account as admin and adjust the power policies that you want dictated. Then open up regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\PowerCfg and export it to a file say power.reg
Then open up the file in your notepad and replace (a simple EDIT > Replace should do the trick) all instances of HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel and save the file and close it.
Go back to your registry editor and navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\PowerCfg now export the file to power_backup.reg .. this is your backup file in case something doesn't work out right.

Close your registry editor. Then doubleclick power.reg to merge the keys.

Basically what you've done is duplicated your power settings and profiles to the default power profile on your system.

[kev7555]

He was talking about changing the other account to an administrator account temporarily while he made the changes, then setting it back to limited.