Within Central Admin (CA), I’m really liking the new ribbon interface – just have to click on a Web App, and the options in the ribbon bar change to show what actions are ‘valid’ – just like within a SharePoint team site, etc
CA has become a very nice place to be. 
BUT – I was having a problem when trying to configure ANONYMOUS access – in which I needed to (1) extend a WebApp to a different zone; and (2) change the authentication providers to allow anon.
The problem is fairly clear in this screenshot :
The buttons for New, Extend, Auth Providers – and even Delete – are all disabled.
YES – this user has permission – I’m RDP’ed onto the server, and running as the ‘farm admin’ account.
So I switch user to another account – the ‘farm’ (service) account – and no joy.
Next stop is to check the Event Viewer – no errors. And even the Permissions for the App Pool account.
To cut a long story short, this happens because of permissions within Internet Explorer (IE) – it occurs because of the “User Access Control” limiting what you’re able to do – damn it UAC, you got me again !
Resolution :
The simple answer is that you need to run the browser “as administrator” :
- Click in the address bar and take a copy of the URL (CTRL+C)
- Close Internet Explorer (all tabs)
- Within the Start Menu – right-click on the blue (e) logo
- Click “Run as administrator”
- UAC will ask if you want to confirm the action – just click YES
- Paste in the URL that you copied earlier – and hit enter.
- Voila !!
- The buttons are enabled – and yes, you can do as needed – New, Extend, Delete, etc.
Quick Tip :
To avoid having to right-click, and choose “Run as administrator” each time, you can create an “Admin IE” icon :
- Create an IE shortcut on Desktop (right-click+drag – and choose ‘Create Shortcut’)
- Right click on the blue (e) – and select Properties
- Click Advanced
- Tick the box for ‘Run as administrator’
- And then click OK – and then once again (OK).
You can then double-click on the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop – as you would normally do.
The UAC confirmation message will still be shown; you need to click YES as before.
IMPORTANT. DO NOT simply turn off User Access Control (as I’ve seen elsewhere on other blogs…!!)
