Autoruns only showing Explorer items for non-admin, but can't make changes

Slick RCBD 76 Reputation points
2026-08-22T09:10:06.5733333+00:00

I've been noticing some considerable lag on my Win10 desktop (Yes, I know, but my attempt to put Win11 on it was a disaster of incompatibilities that wound up with me restoring a backup image that I'd had the foresight to make before allowing the DOWNgrade to happen) and wanted to see if I had something that might be spying on me or something even though Windows Defender and Malwarebytes came up clean.

I checked Autoruns64 for Explorer extensions and saw a bunch of things, but was told access was denied when trying to uncheck things like "Groove" which I thought I'd uninstalled years ago. Clicking on "run as administrator" showed a lot fewer items available, and none of the stuff I wanted to uncheck.

AutorunsJunk

How would I go about disabling the junk I don't [think I] need if it doesn't appear when I click "Run as Administrator"? The elevated windows is on the left, the non-elevated one on the right. I haven't actually logged in to the admin account from the Welcome screen in months so I am just now realizing I don't know if the lag issue is affecting it or any other users or not. I had just begun troubleshooting when I encountered this issue and got side-tracked.

Autoruns is nice because if I accidentally disable something important it's easy to fix it and put it back. Manually deleting from the registry is a bit more cumbersome.

Also please note that there is no vertical scroll bar on the elevated Autoruns, while the non-elevated one has at least four times as many items populated, and none of the ones I want to uncheck show up on the admin tab, but they all say "access denied" when I try to untick them.

Sysinternals
Sysinternals

Advanced system utilities to manage, troubleshoot, and diagnose Windows and Linux systems and applications.

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  1. AI answer

    2026-08-22T09:10:42.19+00:00

    Autoruns can show entries for different user accounts, and the User menu is the control for that. A likely reason the elevated instance shows fewer Explorer items is that it is showing a different user context than the non-elevated instance.

    Use this approach:

    1. Open Autoruns64 elevated.
    2. In Autoruns, open the User menu.
    3. Select the user account that normally experiences the lag, or select the option that shows all relevant user profiles if available in that menu.
    4. Go back to the Explorer tab and check whether the missing shell extensions now appear.
    5. If the entries appear, clear the checkbox to disable them rather than deleting them. That is the safer option because Autoruns supports re-enabling later.

    Useful built-in actions in Autoruns:

    • Uncheck an entry to disable it.
    • Use Delete only if the entry should be removed permanently.
    • Use Jump to Entry to open the Registry or file system location for the selected item.
    • Use Properties to inspect the executable or DLL behind the entry.

    For narrowing the list:

    1. In Options, use display filtering such as showing only non-Windows entries.
    2. Review the Explorer tab for third-party shell extensions first.
    3. If needed, also review Logon and Scheduled Tasks, since those are common places to investigate startup-related lag.

    If an entry still shows Access denied when trying to uncheck it, use Jump to Entry from the elevated instance and inspect the exact Registry location or file path tied to that item before making changes manually. Disabling in Autoruns is preferable to manual removal because it is easier to reverse.

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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  2. Slick RCBD 76 Reputation points
    2026-08-22T09:15:33.7133333+00:00

    I just corrected the image to show the correct user, still missing items.

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