Cannot install new progs / plugins

Hi, hope someone can help...

I am using Vista 32 bit Business edition (and have been for some
time). This morning, I noticed that Java no longer worked under IE7.
So, I tried to reinstall Java, but still didn't work (empty box with
red cross at top left).

Then I tried to install Firefox but I had to do this as administrator
- ok, done that, though I normally don't have to explicitly 'run as
admin' for installs. Then tried to install Java under Firefox but
noticed that no plug ins would install unless I ran as aministrator.
Widened the field a bit and tried to install some other apps but got
'permission denied' errors when trying to create Program File folders
etc.

All of this running as a user with 'Administrator' role.

So, then I created a new user (with Admin role) and tried IE7 with
Java - all worked ok. Other apps install ok - back to normal.

So, it looks like a problem with my current user / profile but I just
can't track it down. I'd like to avoid moving to a new user, so any
help / suggestions / pointers would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

> Installations (and a lot of other changes as well) require you to run as
> administrator, this is how Vista's UAC works. I doubt there is anything
> wrong with your user account, it's just a regular user (not an
> administrator) account. You can check this out in the Control Panel.
>
> Charlie42

Thanks for the reply.

My account is an administrator account and the problem that first
showed up was Java not running inside of IE7. Surely I don't have to
run IE7 as administrator every time I want to look at some page or
other that uses Java applets? Anyway, like I said, this has only
started happening today.

Also, the fact that a new user account works ok shows that there is
something wrong/different with my original user account.

Any other ideas?

Thanks.