Okay, I admit it. I futzed up my registry. I don't know how. If I did, I would build a time machine and stop myself from doing it. I am, obviously, trying to avoid having to restore from a 6-month old backup. I have bizarre security related issues. All of these problems occur even when logged on as Administrator. Some programs that require administrator privileges will not run. I get an error message "A referral was returned from the server". I don't have Office 97 installed. I cannot change the UAC level. The dialog shows up and the slider works, but when I click OK, nothing happens. My VirtualBox clients cannot share files with the host. The message is 'broken file share'. These are the worst problems. There are more that pop up from time to time. I am really curious about this. As I find out more about it I will post here. Thanks for any and all help!

Hi, After checking this issue, I would like to suggest you temporarily disable anti-virus software to check how it works. If issue persists, please run SFC command to check if we can find and fix any corrupted system file. How to use the System File Checker tool to troubleshoot missing or corrupted system files on Windows Vista or on Windows 7 Also, you could test your issues in Clean Boot mode to narrow down if this is caused by software conflicts. Hope it helps. Alex ZhaoPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.