Administrator log in

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Ben

That article simply describes the built-in Administrator account in Vista.
This is an account that is hidden, by default and should not be used except
in cases of an emergency. If for some reason all other administrator
accounts get deleted, this account will still be available when you log into
Safe Mode.

Can you describe the problem you are having?
 
I purchased a pc with Vista basic pre-installed. I set up 2 user accounts and
an Administrator account as directed. The 2 user accounts were for myself and
my wife and the Administartor account was there for when I needed it (as per
Windows advice). Everything was good and I decided to upgrade to Premium
using the Windows Anytime upgrade disc after puchasing the licence on-line.
The upgrade completed and my machine re-booted but the welcome screen only
showed the log in for the two user accounts. The administrator log in has
disapeared.
When I go control panel>user accounts>manage another account it shows the 2
user accounts and the administrator account. I just need a method of logging
in to that administator account so I can give the administrator control to
one of the other accounts.
This is getting very frustrating as I cant even clean re-install from the
upgrade disc because I dont have the right privilages - no control over my
own pc after spending 90 quid on an upgrade..
Any help gratefully recieved
 
Ben

You need to boot to Safe Mode. When you go to Safe Mode, you can only log-in
with an Administrator account. If there are no other administrator accounts
left, Vista is designed to log you on with the Built-in Administrator
account. This account does not have a password, by default.

Reboot the computer and start tapping the F8 key while it restarts. You will
eventually see a black screen with several menu options, use the Arrow Keys
to select Safe Mode and press the Enter Key.

Once in Safe Mode, you can either create a new Administrator account change
one of the Standard User accounts to Administrator.

I'm not sure what may have happened to your original administrator account
when you performed the upgrade?
 
Ben, when you first set up the pc, how did you name the first account, ie
the one that has Administrator rights? I presume that you set up that
account before creating your 2 Standard User accounts (Ben and Mrs Ben).
 
I posted a similar problem above. The difference in my case is that I did not
program a password for my administrator profile. I tried running the Safe
Mode process you suggested, but it just goes straight to my standard user
profile. I do not see any option for me to log in as an administrator.

What am I missing?

Help!
 
SROC4

I don't see your previous message. It may not have posted properly?
Please repost your original message.
 
Here it is:

I bought my computer with Vista Business intalled. I've been using the
administrator profile (as my profile) up until yesterday when I switched it
to a "user". I assigned the ASP.NET profile as administrator and did not
assign a password. When I restarted my PC, now there is no way for me to
access the administrator rights since it requires me to input a password. Is
there a default password for this, since I did not assign one in th first
place? Now there is no way for me to change the settings of my PC.

Please help!!!

Thanks!
 
Jane
The accounts were called Ben (Administrator) and me & her (user accounts). I
did set the administrator account up first. I was running the sytem perfectly
for about a month before I took the decision (in hindsight -stupid) to
upgrade.

The sad part is I really like Vista but this is starting to confirm to me
all the negative things that people have been saying about it.
 
Ronnie,
Ive rebooted in safe mode but there remains no Administrator log in only the
usual standard users. I went to Control panel>user accounts>manage another
account and it will only let me change the pictures nothing else. When I try
to create a new account it says I cant because the name contains ^'|.><* even
though it doesnt.
Even though its in safe mode it seems to be behaving exactly as it does
normally.

Brick in hand-close to smashing!!!!!
 
The way I understand this is the ASP.NET account is created when the .Net
Framework is installed. This account has special permissions configured and
a random password is generated for the account. This account is
automatically accessed and used when you perform ASP.NET development work
for web applications. I don't think this account was designed for everyday
use.

The only thing I can suggest is that you go to the MSDN Developer Forums and
describe the problem and ask if there is a way to retrieve or change the
automatically generated password for that account. Post the message in one
of the ASP.NET forums there.

MSDN Forums:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/default.aspx?SiteID=1
 
Post back here and let us know, good or bad. Things are always evolving with
different issues and someone here may come up with more information on this
problem.
 
Hi Ben

I have been trying to recreate what you are seeing. I did some testing and
here's what I found.

I had one administrator account on the test system with Vista Home Premium
installed. This was the only account on the system. I demoted this account
to a Standard User and checked to make sure that it was indeed a standard
account without administrator privileges. I then booted into Safe Mode and
at the Welcome screen, the built-in administrator account appeared as an
available account. I logged into this account without a password. This is
the way that Vista was designed to work, but apparently, not what you are
seeing.

A question.

What happens when you are logged on and you try to elevate a program with
administrator privileges?

You can check this by going to Start and type cmd.exe in the search box.
In Programs, right click cmd.exe and select Run As Administrator. What
should happen is that you get a UAC prompt to select an administrator
account to use for the elevation. What do you see?
 
Hi Ronnie
First of thanks thanks for helping me with this it is appreciated.

I did as you said and I got a black box with C:\windows\system32> with a
flashing cursor at the end.
 
Ben

Sorry for the delay.

OK, perform the same procedure to bring the command window up as
administrator and then do the following.

In the command prompt window, copy/paste this command.

net user administrator /active:yes

Press Enter.

You should see a message, "The command completed successsfully."

Reboot the computer and at the Welcome screen, you should now see the
built-in administrator account. Log on with this account and make the
changes you need. You should create at least one administrator account or
change one of your Standard accounts to an administrator account in Control
Panel/User Accounts.

Once all of the changes are made, go back and repeat the steps above, but
this time use the following command to disable the built-in administrator
account.

net user administrator /active:no
 
Ronnie,

I did as you said and got the following message:
The syntax of this command is:

NET USER
[username [password : * ] [options]] [/DOMAIN]
username {password : * } /ADD [options] [/DOMAIN]
username [/DELETE] [/DOMAIN]
username [/TIMES:{times : ALL}]

and then it returns to the

C:\Windows\system32>
 
Ben

Open the command prompt, as before with Run as administrator. type the
following command.

net user

Press Enter.

Click the small icon on the top left of the window and click Edit/Select
All. Press the Enter Key. This should copy the text on the screen. Paste the
results back here in a reply.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


Ben said:
Ronnie,

I did as you said and got the following message:
The syntax of this command is:

NET USER
[username [password : * ] [options]] [/DOMAIN]
username {password : * } /ADD [options] [/DOMAIN]
username [/DELETE] [/DOMAIN]
username [/TIMES:{times : ALL}]

and then it returns to the

C:\Windows\system32>




Ronnie Vernon MVP said:
Ben

Sorry for the delay.

OK, perform the same procedure to bring the command window up as
administrator and then do the following.

In the command prompt window, copy/paste this command.

net user administrator /active:yes

Press Enter.

You should see a message, "The command completed successsfully."

Reboot the computer and at the Welcome screen, you should now see the
built-in administrator account. Log on with this account and make the
changes you need. You should create at least one administrator account or
change one of your Standard accounts to an administrator account in
Control
Panel/User Accounts.

Once all of the changes are made, go back and repeat the steps above, but
this time use the following command to disable the built-in administrator
account.

net user administrator /active:no
--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Ronnie,

Results as requested.

C:\Windows\system32>net user

User accounts for \\BEN1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Administrator ASPNET Ben
Benn Guest
The command completed successfully.

I'm assuming this means the administrator account is one called Benn. This
is the account I use all the time but when I log in it says its a standard
user account and when i go to control panel it says the same. It also wont
let me change anything without being logged on as an admistrator. The guest
account on control panel is shown as being turned off and it wont let me turn
it on. Ben was the admistrator account before I upgraded.

Ronnie Vernon MVP said:
Ben

Open the command prompt, as before with Run as administrator. type the
following command.

net user

Press Enter.

Click the small icon on the top left of the window and click Edit/Select
All. Press the Enter Key. This should copy the text on the screen. Paste the
results back here in a reply.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


Ben said:
Ronnie,

I did as you said and got the following message:
The syntax of this command is:

NET USER
[username [password : * ] [options]] [/DOMAIN]
username {password : * } /ADD [options] [/DOMAIN]
username [/DELETE] [/DOMAIN]
username [/TIMES:{times : ALL}]

and then it returns to the

C:\Windows\system32>




Ronnie Vernon MVP said:
Ben

Sorry for the delay.

OK, perform the same procedure to bring the command window up as
administrator and then do the following.

In the command prompt window, copy/paste this command.

net user administrator /active:yes

Press Enter.

You should see a message, "The command completed successsfully."

Reboot the computer and at the Welcome screen, you should now see the
built-in administrator account. Log on with this account and make the
changes you need. You should create at least one administrator account or
change one of your Standard accounts to an administrator account in
Control
Panel/User Accounts.

Once all of the changes are made, go back and repeat the steps above, but
this time use the following command to disable the built-in administrator
account.

net user administrator /active:no
--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


Hi Ronnie
First of thanks thanks for helping me with this it is appreciated.

I did as you said and I got a black box with C:\windows\system32> with
a
flashing cursor at the end.

:

Hi Ben

I have been trying to recreate what you are seeing. I did some testing
and
here's what I found.

I had one administrator account on the test system with Vista Home
Premium
installed. This was the only account on the system. I demoted this
account
to a Standard User and checked to make sure that it was indeed a
standard
account without administrator privileges. I then booted into Safe Mode
and
at the Welcome screen, the built-in administrator account appeared as
an
available account. I logged into this account without a password. This
is
the way that Vista was designed to work, but apparently, not what you
are
seeing.

A question.

What happens when you are logged on and you try to elevate a program
with
administrator privileges?

You can check this by going to Start and type cmd.exe in the
search
box.
In Programs, right click cmd.exe and select Run As Administrator. What
should happen is that you get a UAC prompt to select an administrator
account to use for the elevation. What do you see?



--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


Ronnie,
Ive rebooted in safe mode but there remains no Administrator log in
only
the
usual standard users. I went to Control panel>user accounts>manage
another
account and it will only let me change the pictures nothing else.
When
I
try
to create a new account it says I cant because the name contains
^'|.><*
even
though it doesnt.
Even though its in safe mode it seems to be behaving exactly as it
does
normally.

Brick in hand-close to smashing!!!!!

:

Ben

You need to boot to Safe Mode. When you go to Safe Mode, you can
only
log-in
with an Administrator account. If there are no other administrator
accounts
left, Vista is designed to log you on with the Built-in
Administrator
account. This account does not have a password, by default.

Reboot the computer and start tapping the F8 key while it restarts.
You
will
eventually see a black screen with several menu options, use the
Arrow
Keys
to select Safe Mode and press the Enter Key.

Once in Safe Mode, you can either create a new Administrator
account
change
one of the Standard User accounts to Administrator.

I'm not sure what may have happened to your original administrator
account
when you performed the upgrade?

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


I purchased a pc with Vista basic pre-installed. I set up 2 user
accounts
and
an Administrator account as directed. The 2 user accounts were
for
myself
and
my wife and the Administartor account was there for when I needed
it
(as
per
Windows advice). Everything was good and I decided to upgrade to
Premium
using the Windows Anytime upgrade disc after puchasing the
licence
on-line.
The upgrade completed and my machine re-booted but the welcome
screen
only
showed the log in for the two user accounts. The administrator
log
in
has
disapeared.
When I go control panel>user accounts>manage another account it
shows
the
2
user accounts and the administrator account. I just need a method
of
logging
in to that administator account so I can give the administrator
control
to
one of the other accounts.
This is getting very frustrating as I cant even clean re-install
from
the
upgrade disc because I dont have the right privilages - no
control
over
my
own pc after spending 90 quid on an upgrade..
Any help gratefully recieved

:

Ben

That article simply describes the built-in Administrator account
in
Vista.
This is an account that is hidden, by default and should not be
used
except
in cases of an emergency. If for some reason all other
administrator
accounts get deleted, this account will still be available when
you
log
into
Safe Mode.

Can you describe the problem you are having?

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


Ive found a technical page on the Microsoft web site that
explains
my
problem
(see link below) but it doesnt tell me how to put it right
simply
so
someone
with very little computer knowledge can do it - any help
gratefully
recieved.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926183/en-us
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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