Central Admin's 'New' Web Application button greyed out

This is a replay, but always good to remember - pops up every now and then. I was questioned about this today and decided to give a brief explanation.

It has happened to me in the past, wanting to create a New Web Application and the button was greyed out. I couldn't quite understand why, since I could perform the remaining administrative tasks I was looking to do at the time.
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Whether you have stored a bookmark to the Central Administration and have started Internet Explorer using the regular task-bar icon (as a regular user), or if you are trying to access Central Administration remotely, things may not work the same way as when you use the Central Administration link from the Start Menu.

The reason is simple, certain operations in Central Administration are only enabled when you are running Internet Explorer locally as Administrator, being 'New' Web Application one of them. Another example of the blocked operations, when not running as admin, would be the 'Manage services on server' option. This is by design, since some of the option will require tasks to be executed with elevated privileges.

So, always start Internet Explorer as Admin when wanting to access the Central Administration!