Administrator account restricted in XP Home?

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Guest

I have become the defacto administrator for our computers at our church. All
5 computers (Intel-based, Dell and HP computers) are running XP Home SP2 and
I'm not very familiar with XP HOME (I use XP PRO on all my computers at
home). I'm trying to standardize stuff (adminstrator passwords, policies,
etc) on all computers. We also recently had a crash which required a
complete reinstall, so I thought I'd begin standardization with that
computer.

When I reinstalled HOME, I was never asked for an administrator password
(don't know if this is normal in HOME or not); just for a single account name
(Volunteer). I have downloaded and installed SP2 and all updates. Since I
was never asked for a password for Administrator, I tried to log into
Administrator without a password. I got the following error msg: "Unable to
log you on because of an account restriction."

I looked under Control Panel, Administrator Tools, but there was nothing
available for user and group permissions and policies like there is in PRO.

I don't want "Volunteer" to have administrative priviledges, but since I
cannot log into Administrator, I don't know what to do. Is there something
simple I can do to change this (hopefully), or am I left with the owner
account (Volunteer) as the administrator? I don't know when we will have the
funds to upgrade to Pro or Vista. Any suggestions???
 
Tim said:
I have become the defacto administrator for our computers at our
church. All 5 computers (Intel-based, Dell and HP computers) are
running XP Home SP2 and I'm not very familiar with XP HOME (I use
XP PRO on all my computers at home). I'm trying to standardize
stuff (adminstrator passwords, policies, etc) on all computers.
We also recently had a crash which required a complete reinstall,
so I thought I'd begin standardization with that computer.

When I reinstalled HOME, I was never asked for an administrator
password (don't know if this is normal in HOME or not); just for a
single account name (Volunteer). I have downloaded and installed
SP2 and all updates. Since I was never asked for a password for
Administrator, I tried to log into Administrator without a
password. I got the following error msg: "Unable to log you on
because of an account restriction."

I looked under Control Panel, Administrator Tools, but there was
nothing available for user and group permissions and policies like
there is in PRO.

I don't want "Volunteer" to have administrative priviledges, but
since I cannot log into Administrator, I don't know what to do. Is
there something simple I can do to change this (hopefully), or am I
left with the owner account (Volunteer) as the administrator? I
don't know when we will have the funds to upgrade to Pro or Vista.
Any suggestions???
Click to expand...

A google search would have told you that you cannot log into Windows XP Home
as the Administrator user *except* in Safe Mode. Reboot into Safe Mode, log
in (likely without a password) as "administrator" and change the
"Administrator" password. Also - the only place you can get to the
"Security tab" in Windows XP Home is in Safe Mode.
 
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