For those having issues with Shields and permissions:
So not sure if earlier link might resolve, but official thing is https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/38609#issuecomment-2195847971 or the reply directly under it if you want to check it out.
Long story short, occasionally some people are getting folders marked as administrator only during updates. When you launch Brave regularly, it’s not under admin. This difference keeps it so some of the folders/components aren’t able to be accessed. Launching as admin can temporarily resolve, but the devs say never to do this as it can make the problem worse.
The “fix” is to go in and manually adjust the folder permissions.
In terms of saying it won’t open when run as administrator, not sure what to tell you.
Well, except Brave devs say to never do it.
https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/38609#issuecomment-2753625854