Administrator already exists

I didn't set up my User Accounts properly. Now, when I try to correct that,
I can't add "Administrator" under Start-Control Panel-User Accounts because
it says "An account named 'Administrator' already exists." That's true,
there is an Administrator sub-directory under "Documents and Settings". But
I can't link that account to Start-Control Panel-User Accounts. How do I
correct things so that I have a bona-fide "Administrator" account under
Start-Control Panel-User Accounts that is correctly linked to the
Administrator sub-directory under "Documents and Settings"? Thanks!

Swatara wrote:
: I didn't set up my User Accounts properly. Now, when I try to
: correct that, I can't add "Administrator" under Start-Control
: Panel-User Accounts because it says "An account named 'Administrator'
: already exists." That's true, there is an Administrator
: sub-directory under "Documents and Settings". But I can't link that
: account to Start-Control Panel-User Accounts. How do I correct
: things so that I have a bona-fide "Administrator" account under
: Start-Control Panel-User Accounts that is correctly linked to the
: Administrator sub-directory under "Documents and Settings"? Thanks!

Maybe you confuse the Administrator (account name) with Computer
Administrator (account type). Any User account may have administrator
privilege.
TonyS

Swatara wrote on 12-Sep-2004 6:47 AM:

> I didn't set up my User Accounts properly. Now, when I try to correct that,
> I can't add "Administrator" under Start-Control Panel-User Accounts because
> it says "An account named 'Administrator' already exists." That's true,
> there is an Administrator sub-directory under "Documents and Settings". But
> I can't link that account to Start-Control Panel-User Accounts. How do I
> correct things so that I have a bona-fide "Administrator" account under
> Start-Control Panel-User Accounts that is correctly linked to the
> Administrator sub-directory under "Documents and Settings"? Thanks!

The Administrator account is normally hidden from the welcome screen.
You can press Ctl-Alt-Del and then enter "Administrator" and the
password you set when you installed XP or you can do an F8 safe mode
boot to use the Administrator account.

Create a new account of whatever name you wish and make it a "computer
administrator" account. Use that account and save the Administrator
account as an emergency account to fix things when you can't access your
regular admin account. Do not try to link the Documents and Settings
Administrator folder to some other account.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows Security

Built-in Administrator account is hidden from both the Welcome screen and
standard User Accounts.
In case of XP Pro run "control userpasswords2" or "lusrmgr.msc", reset
Administrator password, reboot, and at Welcome screen press Ctrl+Alt+Del
twice, then you can logon as Administrator.
In case of XP Home boot into Safe mode and use User Accounts to reset the
password.

I have XP Pro with similar Question, but I can't use your answer...

I want to have three accounts:
2 "normal" users for everyday login
1 administrator account for installs and so on

It seems that I'm forced to have a fourth account, yet another administrator
account (currently named "admin"). Every attempt to delete or downgrade this
"admin" account, so that I will have only one (1) administrator account are
stopped!

Can I get around this nasty behavour from XP?

--
/Mats


"Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:

> Swatara wrote on 12-Sep-2004 6:47 AM:
>
> > I didn't set up my User Accounts properly. Now, when I try to correct that,
> > I can't add "Administrator" under Start-Control Panel-User Accounts because
> > it says "An account named 'Administrator' already exists." That's true,
> > there is an Administrator sub-directory under "Documents and Settings". But
> > I can't link that account to Start-Control Panel-User Accounts. How do I
> > correct things so that I have a bona-fide "Administrator" account under
> > Start-Control Panel-User Accounts that is correctly linked to the
> > Administrator sub-directory under "Documents and Settings"? Thanks!
>
> The Administrator account is normally hidden from the welcome screen.
> You can press Ctl-Alt-Del and then enter "Administrator" and the
> password you set when you installed XP or you can do an F8 safe mode
> boot to use the Administrator account.
>
> Create a new account of whatever name you wish and make it a "computer
> administrator" account. Use that account and save the Administrator
> account as an emergency account to fix things when you can't access your
> regular admin account. Do not try to link the Documents and Settings
> Administrator folder to some other account.
>
> --
> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows Security
>

The account "Administrator" can be renamed or disabled, but cannot be
deleted. I'm assuming that is the fourth account you are referring to? What
is the administrator account you have that you use named?

"Mats" <Mats@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F5DDCBD4-B72A-4C1F-BF65-020F4B8E43B2@microsoft.com...
>I have XP Pro with similar Question, but I can't use your answer...
>
> I want to have three accounts:
> 2 "normal" users for everyday login
> 1 administrator account for installs and so on
>
> It seems that I'm forced to have a fourth account, yet another
> administrator
> account (currently named "admin"). Every attempt to delete or downgrade
> this
> "admin" account, so that I will have only one (1) administrator account
> are
> stopped!
>
> Can I get around this nasty behavour from XP?
>
> --
> /Mats
>
>
> "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> Swatara wrote on 12-Sep-2004 6:47 AM:
>>
>> > I didn't set up my User Accounts properly. Now, when I try to correct
>> > that,
>> > I can't add "Administrator" under Start-Control Panel-User Accounts
>> > because
>> > it says "An account named 'Administrator' already exists." That's
>> > true,
>> > there is an Administrator sub-directory under "Documents and Settings".
>> > But
>> > I can't link that account to Start-Control Panel-User Accounts. How do
>> > I
>> > correct things so that I have a bona-fide "Administrator" account under
>> > Start-Control Panel-User Accounts that is correctly linked to the
>> > Administrator sub-directory under "Documents and Settings"? Thanks!
>>
>> The Administrator account is normally hidden from the welcome screen.
>> You can press Ctl-Alt-Del and then enter "Administrator" and the
>> password you set when you installed XP or you can do an F8 safe mode
>> boot to use the Administrator account.
>>
>> Create a new account of whatever name you wish and make it a "computer
>> administrator" account. Use that account and save the Administrator
>> account as an emergency account to fix things when you can't access your
>> regular admin account. Do not try to link the Documents and Settings
>> Administrator folder to some other account.
>>
>> --
>> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows Security
>>

My fourth account is named "admin" and is created by me. I want to delete
this account and only use the account named "asministrator" created during
install for program install and other administrative tasks. But XP forces me
to have at least one manually created account as "computer administrator".

Is there a way around this enforcement, so that I don't need to have any of
my manually created accounts as a "computer administrator"?

--
/Mats


"WM" wrote:

> The account "Administrator" can be renamed or disabled, but cannot be
> deleted. I'm assuming that is the fourth account you are referring to? What
> is the administrator account you have that you use named?
>
> "Mats" <Mats@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:F5DDCBD4-B72A-4C1F-BF65-020F4B8E43B2@microsoft.com...
> >I have XP Pro with similar Question, but I can't use your answer...
> >
> > I want to have three accounts:
> > 2 "normal" users for everyday login
> > 1 administrator account for installs and so on
> >
> > It seems that I'm forced to have a fourth account, yet another
> > administrator
> > account (currently named "admin"). Every attempt to delete or downgrade
> > this
> > "admin" account, so that I will have only one (1) administrator account
> > are
> > stopped!
> >
> > Can I get around this nasty behavour from XP?
> >
> > --
> > /Mats
> >
> >
> > "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
> >
> >> Create a new account of whatever name you wish and make it a "computer
> >> administrator" account. Use that account and save the Administrator
> >> account as an emergency account to fix things when you can't access your
> >> regular admin account. Do not try to link the Documents and Settings
> >> Administrator folder to some other account.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows Security
> >>

I realize this note is 2 years old- hope someone is still out there! In an
effort to fix my IPOD, I was told to create a new user account. In doing so,
I got the message "If you are the only user on the computer with a computer
administrator account, you will not be able to change your account type
because there must be at least one person with a computer administrator
account on the computer. " I must have either created another user account
anyway, or changed the name of it. Upon reboot,the new account name (which
had computer administrator type) came up, and I can no longer find my
documents,music, data../desktop has changed completely.) I am assuming from
reading these strings that I have lost my administator status?? Will the
"control userpasswords2."note in this string fix this??? I have Windows XP
Proffesional, stand alone computer, had never added an account before.. When
I try log off- switch user accounts- there is only 'Guest" as another option.
The original account type doesn't show up. HELP!

--
pruitt


"Jetro" wrote:

> Built-in Administrator account is hidden from both the Welcome screen and
> standard User Accounts.
> In case of XP Pro run "control userpasswords2" or "lusrmgr.msc", reset
> Administrator password, reboot, and at Welcome screen press Ctrl+Alt+Del
> twice, then you can logon as Administrator.
> In case of XP Home boot into Safe mode and use User Accounts to reset the
> password.
>
>
>

Postings may be old, but I'm still looking for answer on my question! (How to
delete or degrade all manually added accounts with administrative
privileges?) Therefore I subscribe to email notifications of new postings to
this thread.

Your problem is caused by XP handling of privileged accounts, wich I
personally think are a bit cumbersome. However, you SHALL NOT(at least not as
first steps) reset the password for the account Administrator through the
tools mentioned by Jetro. I don't know if there exists a SIMPLE final
solution to your problem.

In the mean time, however, as a workaround you should try the tip from Kent
W, since you probably have used the built-in account Administrator before
creating the new account:

"...The Administrator account is normally hidden from the welcome screen.
You can press Ctl-Alt-Del and then enter "Administrator" and the
password you set when you installed XP..." (or use blank or whatever
password you've used before)

If you don't see the welcome screen at startup, you can try to log out and
then press Ctrl-Alt-Del. There's a way of setting XP so that it always shows
the welcome screen OR the "classic" log-in dialog at startup, but I can't
help you with that now, since I'm not using a PC with XP at the moment. If
you need assistance in this matter, please make another post to this thread!

--
Kind regards
Mats


"pruitt" wrote:

> I realize this note is 2 years old- hope someone is still out there! In an
> effort to fix my IPOD, I was told to create a new user account. In doing so,
> I got the message "If you are the only user on the computer with a computer
> administrator account, you will not be able to change your account type
> because there must be at least one person with a computer administrator
> account on the computer. " I must have either created another user account
> anyway, or changed the name of it. Upon reboot,the new account name (which
> had computer administrator type) came up, and I can no longer find my
> documents,music, data../desktop has changed completely.) I am assuming from
> reading these strings that I have lost my administator status?? Will the
> "control userpasswords2."note in this string fix this??? I have Windows XP
> Proffesional, stand alone computer, had never added an account before.. When
> I try log off- switch user accounts- there is only 'Guest" as another option.
> The original account type doesn't show up. HELP!
>
> --
> pruitt
>
>
> "Jetro" wrote:
>
> > Built-in Administrator account is hidden from both the Welcome screen and
> > standard User Accounts.
> > In case of XP Pro run "control userpasswords2" or "lusrmgr.msc", reset
> > Administrator password, reboot, and at Welcome screen press Ctrl+Alt+Del
> > twice, then you can logon as Administrator.
> > In case of XP Home boot into Safe mode and use User Accounts to reset the
> > password.
> >
> >
> >

Thanks for the time in the response. Under another posting, there was a
suggestion to boot up the computer under safe mode. I did this, and was able
to see my original adminstrator user name in the welcome screen. I can access
all my docs while acting under this original user, but because I'm in safe
mode, things are not functioning as i'd like (can't open up many things..) Is
there a way to reactivate something while in safe mode, so my original
adminstrator user becomes my primary upon startup of computer? i realize(now)
it's best to create a new user, and keep the original admistrator user as
clean as possible- i'd like to go in, make the latest backup, and then I
guess, load it under the new user?? Any advice is appreciated. I know only
enough to be dangerous when it comes to this machine...
--
pruitt


"Mats" wrote:

> Postings may be old, but I'm still looking for answer on my question! (How to
> delete or degrade all manually added accounts with administrative
> privileges?) Therefore I subscribe to email notifications of new postings to
> this thread.
>
> Your problem is caused by XP handling of privileged accounts, wich I
> personally think are a bit cumbersome. However, you SHALL NOT(at least not as
> first steps) reset the password for the account Administrator through the
> tools mentioned by Jetro. I don't know if there exists a SIMPLE final
> solution to your problem.
>
> In the mean time, however, as a workaround you should try the tip from Kent
> W, since you probably have used the built-in account Administrator before
> creating the new account:
>
> "...The Administrator account is normally hidden from the welcome screen.
> You can press Ctl-Alt-Del and then enter "Administrator" and the
> password you set when you installed XP..." (or use blank or whatever
> password you've used before)
>
> If you don't see the welcome screen at startup, you can try to log out and
> then press Ctrl-Alt-Del. There's a way of setting XP so that it always shows
> the welcome screen OR the "classic" log-in dialog at startup, but I can't
> help you with that now, since I'm not using a PC with XP at the moment. If
> you need assistance in this matter, please make another post to this thread!
>
> --
> Kind regards
> Mats
>
>
> "pruitt" wrote:
>
> > I realize this note is 2 years old- hope someone is still out there! In an
> > effort to fix my IPOD, I was told to create a new user account. In doing so,
> > I got the message "If you are the only user on the computer with a computer
> > administrator account, you will not be able to change your account type
> > because there must be at least one person with a computer administrator
> > account on the computer. " I must have either created another user account
> > anyway, or changed the name of it. Upon reboot,the new account name (which
> > had computer administrator type) came up, and I can no longer find my
> > documents,music, data../desktop has changed completely.) I am assuming from
> > reading these strings that I have lost my administator status?? Will the
> > "control userpasswords2."note in this string fix this??? I have Windows XP
> > Proffesional, stand alone computer, had never added an account before.. When
> > I try log off- switch user accounts- there is only 'Guest" as another option.
> > The original account type doesn't show up. HELP!
> >
> > --
> > pruitt
> >
> >
> > "Jetro" wrote:
> >
> > > Built-in Administrator account is hidden from both the Welcome screen and
> > > standard User Accounts.
> > > In case of XP Pro run "control userpasswords2" or "lusrmgr.msc", reset
> > > Administrator password, reboot, and at Welcome screen press Ctrl+Alt+Del
> > > twice, then you can logon as Administrator.
> > > In case of XP Home boot into Safe mode and use User Accounts to reset the
> > > password.
> > >
> > >
> > >