I've been happily using Windows 7 (32bit) ever since the public beta was released. Today, I decided I should go ahead and upgrade to 64bit to take full advantage of my processor and RAM capabilities. After installing, and creating an Administrative account, I have had many issues with permissions and installing applications. Never before (in windows 7) have I had to right click > run as administrator. It has always just worked since I was an administrator. Additonally, I've had issues writing to and modifying files on external drives. Is there anything I can do that will just give me FULL access to my computer WITHOUT logging in as administrator, or is that my only option? Also, are these issues caused by running a 64bit OS?

Thanks in Advance

Well you cannot upgrade Windows per say between architectures, it requires a new install. I see your past that though, so your topic title should really be about user accounts / permissions.

After installing, and creating an Administrative account, I have had many issues with permissions and installing applications.

The default account is a member of the Administrators group, it just has admin approval enabled so you get the UAC prompts.

Not only is creating an administrator account therefor unnecessary but it sounds like you might not have done so correctly.

I recommend going back to the original account and adjusting the UAC settings.

You can change User Account Control Settings in the Control Panel.

By defalt in windows 7 the built in adminostrator account bypasses UAC. If you make another account that has administrator permissions you will get UAC prompts, this is by default. You can change this by going into secpol.msc, under security options there's 6 UAC options at the bottom you can customize.