I ran a boot-up scan with Avast. It said A-okay. Interestingly, when I told Avast to do the boot-up scan, it downloaded additional definitions for that job. Reason for the scan: my system clock suddenly showed up with the wrong time by several hours, plus the wrong date. I set the date & clock when I first got this laptop several days ago. No problem. But NOW it won't let me set the clock but tells me to see the administrator. I AM the administrator!. I am also the one & only user. The set date/time app is on Control Panel so it gives me NO opportunity to "Run as administrator". Neither does it offer a place for an administrator to enter a password to get in. How ridiculous is that? I can't change the date & time. And that's why I ran the most thorough scan Avast is capable of doing -- a bootup scan. Avast says I'm okay & everything seems to be working normally EXCEPT THAT I am locked out of setting the dadgummed clock. I googled the problem. After much searching... no joy whatsoever. QUESTION: Did Avast miss something? Am I infected by a joker-bug that simply wants to mess with my clock? HELP PLEASE: Does anybody know how I can get the date/time setter to recognize that I am the administrator & one & only user?
@ roger... I forgot to mention I am running Win7 whereas the link was Win10. Providentially, that discussion gave a link to Win7 answers. I tried them all. Only 1 worked. Namely, I disconnected, then turned off all my security & it let me change date/time. I had previously tried turning off security one app at a time, which did not work, but turning all of them off did work. Go figure. So I got a solution which is a mystery to a problem that ensued for mysterious reasons. (Cue in theme song for Twilight Zone). Doggone... this is fun, wot?!!! MUCH thanks for your help -- your link led me to a solution. @ mirimir... No clean install. When this laptop arrived, W7 was already installed & running fine, including date/time setter. Never a dull moment with Windoze. @ whoever might want it... The Win7 solution page was HERE. I am amazed at how many folks have had this very same problem, & in every case it came out of nowhere to a healthy computer, & the complainant was the administrator him/herself who was being locked out.
A while after I managed to re-set the clock, it re-set itself to an hour earlier. The minutes are still correct but the clock is 1 hour slow now. So I can now reset the clock, but then it resets itself to the WRONG time. Woops! As I was writing this the clock gained 5 minutes. Could a bad CMOS battery be doing this? Is there any way to check that battery without opening the case?
I was just gonna say bad CMOS battery. If laptop is used could be. I'd YT & see if it's easy to get to. Probably had on e-bay under $3.
do you have linux or hackintosh dualboot? they usually mess your time up also maybe run scans with other scanners, if you got breached while you had Avast installed, its scan won't find anything anyways.
I still recommend doing a clean install. Do you perhaps have an install disk? Also, Windows 7 is retired, and has known vulnerabilities that won't be patched. But I hesitate to recommend Windows 10 Maybe this is the time to learn Linux
It depends on what matters to OP, no? Of course, nobody should still be using Windows. Best is some Linux or *BSD distro. Or even macOS, if you don't mind that Apple knows best for you. At least they're not as rabid as Microsoft about spying on users. I occasionally use Windows 10. But I only use ISOs from torrents. Because there's no identity/money trail. Sure, they may contain backdoors. But I only use them for VMs. I don't recommend that for OP, although it's a close call, given that his laptop could already be backdoored.
Bellgamin- make a note of the current (incorrect) time that is displayed in Windows. Reboot the computer and go into the BIOS. Is the time that you see in BIOS identical (taking into account bootup time) to that which you saw in Windows? If yes, the get yourself the CMOS battery. Until you do this step DON'T do anything complicated.
Administrator: should work and should ask for the password. Just a normal administrator, not the super hidden one. I'd put my money on something wrong with the user account setup. Laptop: Most likely requires brain surgeon skills to remove parts to access the battery. And then, it might be wired to the motherboard and can't be replaced, unless it's a prehistoric laptop from the PentiumIII era. Hey, maybe some technical specs manual for this model laptop might help you.
Really? Did Microsoft fold to public pressure? Or is that just for enterprise clients? But that's good news, if true.
Microsoft unexpectedly drops Windows 7 support for some ancient CPUs https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-unexpectedly-drops-windows-7-support-for-some-ancient-cpus/
I did as you suggested. The bios time & system clock had identical times. So it's my CMOS battery. I finally found 1 online. It's on its way.