As the person in charge of managing the network, you should generally be able to choose which icons show up on the desktop of a Windows Server 2019 computer. But when you try to do this, you run into a weird error message involving something called “rundll32.exe” that says you don’t have the correct permissions.
That’s pretty frustrating because it doesn’t make sense that you, the admin, wouldn’t have complete control over customizing the desktop. Unfortunately, Windows servers can sometimes get a little picky with settings like these.
Do not worry, though; you can try a few things to get around this permissions issue. First, double-check that you use an account with full admin rights on that specific server. It’s possible your account got knocked down a peg somewhere.
You’ll also want to peek at that machine’s security policies and ensure nothing is deliberately blocking desktop icon changes. Sometimes, group policies can lock down certain areas.
If those basic checks don’t reveal the culprit, you may need to dig deeper. Follow the steps below to fix Windows Server 2019 desktop icons rundll32.exe Issue.
Fix Rundll32.exe Error opening desktop icons
To fix the problem, you must adjust some settings using group policy.
The issue is with the security settings in the user account control. You need to activate the Administrator approval mode for the built-in administrator account. It’s a simple fix.
Here’s what you do:
- Open the local group policy management by typing “gpedit.msc” into the search bar and hitting Enter.
- Navigate to this path: Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options.
- Look for the setting called “User Account Control: Administrator approval mode for the built-in administrator account.”
- Double-click on it to open its properties.
- Select the “Enabled” option.
- Click OK to save the changes.
Remember, since this is a computer policy, you’ll need to restart your system for the changes to take effect. After that, the domain administrator can adjust the desktop icon settings too.
You can also distribute this policy using the Windows domain’s group policies if you’re managing multiple computers. This way, the setting will be applied automatically to each server in the domain, saving you time and effort.