Where did my administrator go?

  • Thread starter Thread starter mike gray
  • Start date Start date
M

mike gray

After installing XP pro, installing all software, all settings, address
books, bookmarks, documents, blahblah, I was advised (here) to set up a
user account, which I did.

After again installing all my address books, preferences, documents,
blahblah to make this new user work, the administrator disappeared. It
still shows in explorer, but it is not in start/logoff/switch user or in
control panel/user accounts.

I want my administrator back!

tia
m
 
mike gray said:
After installing XP pro, installing all software, all settings,
address books, bookmarks, documents, blahblah, I was advised (here) to
set up a user account, which I did.

After again installing all my address books, preferences, documents,
blahblah to make this new user work, the administrator disappeared. It
still shows in explorer, but it is not in start/logoff/switch user or
in control panel/user accounts.

I want my administrator back!

tia
m
Click to expand...


Once you create another admin-level account, the default Administrator
account gets hidden. Presumably you are using the Fisher-Price "Welcome
Screen" to login, so the Administrator account will disappear once you
have another admin account. Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic
login screen (http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBI/tip4400/rh4485.htm), or disable
the Fisher-Price login screen and revert back to the classical login
screen (plus you might want to alter local security policies to require
hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del to login). I don't care to use two different login
screens depending on whether I'm at home or work
(http://support.microsoft.com/?id=303594) so I reverted to the classic
login screen (http://support.microsoft.com/?id=291559; I used secpol.msc
to change the interactive login setting instead of the registry hack).

Instead of using the User Passwords applet in Control Panel, use the
advanced applet for user passwords by running "control userpasswords2".
You can also use the Computer Management MMC (compmgmt.msc) to look at
accounts.
 
mike said:
After installing XP pro, installing all software, all settings, address
books, bookmarks, documents, blahblah, I was advised (here) to set up a
user account, which I did.

After again installing all my address books, preferences, documents,
blahblah to make this new user work, the administrator disappeared. It
still shows in explorer, but it is not in start/logoff/switch user or in
control panel/user accounts.

I want my administrator back!

tia
m
Click to expand...


As you've learned, once any additional user accounts have been
created, the Administrator account will no longer be displayed on the
Welcome Screen. This is a default security feature. By design, the
only way to log into the Administrator account of WinXP Home is to
reboot into Safe Mode. For WinXP Pro, pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL twice at
the Welcome Screen will produce the standard login dialog box.

The built-in Administrator account really isn't intended to be
used for day-to-day normal use. The standard security practice is to
set a strong password on it and use it only to create another account
for regular use, reserving the Administrator account as a "back door"
in case something corrupts your regular account(s).

A wiser course of action would be to create another user account
for your daily use, as you say you've done, and copy desired the files
and settings from the Administrator account to this newly created user
profile.

HOW TO Create and Configure User Accounts in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279783

How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811151


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
(snip)

Thanks to both of you.

Wish there was a simple way to create a new account with all the
preferences etc. of the administrator. It's really a pita to find and
transfer stuff like email settings, bookmarks, address books, and such
for a non-tech type like meself.

Why not a "transfer all" function, maybe with a menu showing delete options?

m
 
(snip)

Thanks to both of you.

Wish there was a simple way to create a new account with all the
preferences etc. of the administrator. It's really a pita to find and
transfer stuff like email settings, bookmarks, address books, and such
for a non-tech type like meself.

Why not a "transfer all" function, maybe with a menu showing delete
options?

m
Click to expand...

As of today I can sympathise with you. after hours of tech support help
I just deleted the darn account and went back to just one. If I find an
easier way i'll post it here.
 
mike gray said:
(snip)

Thanks to both of you.

Wish there was a simple way to create a new account with all the
preferences etc. of the administrator. It's really a pita to find and
transfer stuff like email settings, bookmarks, address books, and such
for a non-tech type like meself.

Why not a "transfer all" function, maybe with a menu showing delete
options?

m
Click to expand...


Well, there is if the method I mention is what you are looking for. I
have the Administrator account which I never touch (except as noted
below when copying profiles). I have an AdminBackup account as a backup
admin-level account and also needed as the 3rd account required in the
copy method mentioned below. I have my own account (which happens to be
an admin-level account) and is the one I always use for login.

1. Logout of your account (which I'm presuming is an admin account).
2. Login under the AdminBackup account. This is required so that none
of the files under either the source or target profile are inuse,
including the registry .dat files. (See
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=291555.)
3. Now copy the profile for your normal login (admin) account over the
Administrator account:
- Right-click on My Computer, Properties, Advanced, User Profiles.
- Select your own admin account (as the source profile).
- Click "Copy To".
- Browse to the profile path for the Administrator.
- Make sure the Administrator account has permissions to its new
overwritten profile:
o Click the Change button (under the "Permitted to Use" section).
o Click Advanced.
o Click Find Now.
o Select the "Administrator" account. Click Ok.
o Click Ok. Should be back to the "Copy To" dialog.
4. Click OK to copy the source profile over the target profile. Besides
copying over the profile, the permissions get changed from those for the
source profile to the account you specified above.

Now when you login under the Administrator profile, you get the same
Start menu, the same application data, same My Documents (which you may
not really want a duplicate of), and so forth. Basically I do this so
the Administrator profile is a duplicate of my normal login admin
account. If my normal profile gets corrupted, the Administrator profile
is just like it.

Before I do the above step, I usually change the path to My Documents.
I really don't want a copy of all my documents under one profile to get
duplicated under another profile. Right-click on the My Computer
desktop icon, Properties, and change its path. Then check the
permissions on that path allow your account access to that new path (and
no one else other than Administrators and System have full access). I
move My Documents under D:\Users\<profilename>. Only Administrators and
System have any access to D:\Users and I add the user to their own
profile underneath there. If I ever have to reformat my C: drive
containing Windows, my data remains intact over on D: (and I just have
to change My Documents to point over there again). When I copy
profiles, I don't end up duplicating the My Documents under one profile
under another profile. Maybe you want the duplication but remember that
the duplicated docs under the target profile won't be kept in sync with
those under your profile.

It sounds like a lot of work but after you move the My Documents path
(and make sure permissions are valid) then the only action you have to
take occasionally is to use the Copy To for user profiles mentioned
above. Obviously you want to copy the profile when everything seems to
be running properly for awhile. I tend to toggle between copying to
Administrator and to AdminBackup so that I have one profile back I can
revert beyond the last time that I copied my own profile. The above
looks complicated until you realize the skinny procedure is:

- Log into an intermediary account (with admin privileges).
- Select the source profile path.
- Select the target profile path.
- Make sure permissions are correct so the target account can access the
overwritten profile.
- Copy.
- (And you'll probably want to test the target profile still works
okay.)

There is a way using the registry to actually have multiple accounts
point at the same profile path. I had that working for awhile but
decided to disconnect them. If the profile got corrupted then the same
profile was corrupted for all the accounts sharing that same profile.
Also, you might modify the above and NEVER copy over the Administrator
profile and just copy over the AdminBackup profile (the names for
whatever backup accounts/profiles you want to use may vary).

I probably got some of the above from articles like
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=168475 but some I just figured out,
like changing the path to My Documents so copying the profile didn't
take so long making duplicates of my documents that I didn't want
duplicated anyway.

There is one fly in the soup regarding copying of profiles. I noticed
there were times that I would login under Profile C but the Copy To
button was disable when I attempted to select Profile B (to copy over
Profile A). http://support.microsoft.com/?id=291555 indicates that you
can't be logged in under the target account (so it's profile isn't
inuse) but you also must not be logged in under the source account (so
none of its profile is inuse). However, when I logged off Profile B to
login under Profile C, Profile B could not be copied. It turns out
Microsoft screwed up a bit perhaps because of their fast switch user
mode (which I don't use, anyway). I discovered that the ntuser.dat was
from Profile B still had a handle on it from SYSTEM when I was logged in
under Profile C (I used the oh.exe tool from the W2K Resource Kit to
list open file handles). Since I was logged in under a completely
different account and should be using its own ntuser.dat (for that
account's registry settings), the ntuser.dat for the account that I was
no longer logged in under should have been free. Not always, and the
only way around that I've found so far is to reboot and login straight
away into the intermediary account so I can copy over my normal
account's profile into the other account's profile. I haven't a clue
why SYSTEM still needs an open file handle on an account's ntuser.dat
file when NOT logged under that account.
 
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