In today's publication, we will address this issue by describing the possible cause, and then provide the corresponding workaround for the following problem; "File system errorThat you might come across when trying to copy and then paste a password in the UAC credentials dialog in Windows 10.
File system error in credentials dialog
Suppose you are trying to start an application using elevated permissions. For example, you right-click cmd.exe and select Run as administrator. A User Account Control (UAC) dialog box prompts you to enter your user name and password. You copy the password from a source and press Ctrl + V combo of keys to paste into the password, then you receive the following error messages:
This program has no associated program to perform this action. File system error (-1073741189).
1073741189 indicates that if the UAC registry values or user account control settings are changed or if the system files are corrupted, this file system error may occur.
In addition, if you right-click on the password field, a contextual context menu from which you can select Dough does not appear.
You investigate and notice that consent.exe hangs when the problem occurs.
Consent.EXE is a file that launches the user interface for user account control (UAC), an authorization layer for Windows. It is an authentic and safe process.
The file system error corresponds to the following information in the table below:
| Coded | Symbolic name | Description error | On your mind | |
| hex | Dec | |||
| 0xc000027b | -1073741189 | STATUS_STOWED_EXCEPTION |
An internal exception to the application has occurred. |
ntstatus.h |
Possible cause for the "File System Error" credentials dialog
Pasting the contents of the clipboard into a safe input area is intentionally blocked in Windows 10. However, the Consent.exe crash is a software problem.
Windows 10 introduces a security change that blocks access to the clipboard from the Winlogon desktop (also called Secure office). This change prevents unauthorized users from seeing information on the clipboard. For example:
- Authorized user A copies certain information to the clipboard and then locks the computer.
- Unauthorized user B wakes up the computer (which is on the lock screen) and starts Narrator> Narrator Help. From there, unauthorized user B can paste the contents of the clipboard into a text box in Narrator help, and then read the contents of the clipboard.
A side effect of this change is that, by default, it is no longer possible to paste information into the password text box for UAC elevation.
The reason why UAC prompts are displayed by default on the Winlogon desktop is that no unsecured process (for example, which is not already running as SYSTEM) cannot spy on passwords or other information entered in the UAC dialog.
How to fix the "File System Error" credentials dialog
As prescribed by Microsoft, to resolve the consent.exe crash issue, install the latest Windows 10 cumulative update.
However, the CU only resolves the consent.exe crash issue. Pasting the password to secure the input area is always blocked.
If you want to be able to paste the password into the UAC credentials dialog without receiving the file system error, Microsoft offers the following workaround:
To work around this problem, use gpedit.msc to configure the UAC elevation prompt to appear on the standard user desktop rather than the Winlogon desktop. As soon as the password is copied and to the clipboard of the standard user desktop, any process running on this desktop can read this data in plain text. Indeed, the potential security breach has already occurred without any process trying to read the password information from a UAC dialog.
Microsoft has verified that the security patch implemented in Windows 10 to apply the correct security limit from the standard desktop to the Winlogon desktop is the desired behavior, and this will likely remain the behavior in future versions of Windows.
I hope you find this article useful and informative enough!