Adding a user account alongside the Administrator account

[Guest]

Hello. Is there a way to get WinXP to recognize that it, in fact, already
has an administrative account called 'Administrator' when I try to add a
limited account?
When I try to add a limited account, it comes back and says I need to add an
account with administrative powers first, even though I already have one. I
even played WinXP's game and added an administrative account by another name,
but then the 'Administrator' account became hidden.

I would like to simply add a limited account AND keep/have easy access to
the administrative account called 'Administrator'.

Is this possible? If not, what are some workarounds?

 

[Ben M. Schorr - MVP]

Aloha Thomas,

You say you have an Administrator account - this may be a dumb question but...were
you logged in with that administrator account at the time?

-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr - MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
Microsoft OneNote FAQ: http://www.factplace.com/onenotefaq.htm

 

[All Things Mopar]

Today, with great enthusiasm and quite emphatically,
=?Utf-8?B?VGhvbWFz?= laid this on an unsuspecting readership ...

Hello. Is there a way to get WinXP to recognize that it, in
fact, already has an administrative account called
'Administrator' when I try to add a limited account?
When I try to add a limited account, it comes back and says I
need to add an account with administrative powers first, even
though I already have one. I even played WinXP's game and
added an administrative account by another name, but then the
'Administrator' account became hidden.

I would like to simply add a limited account AND keep/have
easy access to the administrative account called
'Administrator'.

Is this possible? If not, what are some workarounds?

how many total accounts do you have and in what one are you in when
you get this message? if you or someone else using your PC created
a limited account, and that's what you're logged on, you won't be
able to create anything new or do much else except just use the PC.

Google for Kelly's Korner, she has a number of good fixes to XPs
announces, such as bringing back the real Administrator account.

--
ATM, aka Jerry

"Gentleman, you can't fight in here, this the War Room!" - From the
movie 'Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love
the Bomb'

 

[Guest]

At the time I attempt to add the limited account, I only have one account:
Administrator. And I would be on the Administrator account when I attempt to
create the limited account.

WinXP just seems to not recognize that the Administrator is already an
administrative account.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

This is a safeguard. You must create at least one other Administrator level user account, before you can create a limited account. Create the account, assign a password that you'll remember. If you don't want to see the account on the Welcome Screen, use TweakUI for Windows XP to remove it. It is still accessible, by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL, twice, at the Welcome Screen with no users logged in and entering the logon information in the older Win2K style logon dialog.

TweakUI is available from

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp (SP1 and later systems)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/downloads/powertoys.asp (Pre SP1 systems)

 

[All Things Mopar]

Today, with great enthusiasm =?Utf-8?B?VGhvbWFz?= spake the
following:

At the time I attempt to add the limited account, I only have
one account: Administrator. And I would be on the
Administrator account when I attempt to create the limited
account.

WinXP just seems to not recognize that the Administrator is
already an administrative account.

I'm not sure how to respond. When I built my PC, I created the
Administrator account - the real one - and put a password on it,
which is ALWAYS a good idea. I then restarted Windoze, logged in,
and created another account, the one I intended to use for
everyday purposes, and gave it admin rights, restarted again,
logged into "my" account and went to work. I only use the
Aministrator account when I absolutely have to. It has NO changes
made to it whatsoever to whatever Windoze created and no apps are
installed directly into the Administrator account (the others I
installed on my account are accessible, of course). My theory is
that I want to have one account as pristine as possible.

Hope you solve you dilemma.



--
ATM, aka Jerry

"Gentleman, you can't fight in here, this the War Room!" - From
the movie 'Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and
Love the Bomb'

 

[Guest]

Doug,

Thanks very much for your reply. Your suggestion worked perfectly:

(1) I created a new user with administrative powers (so I know have two)

(2) I then created a new user with limited powers (so 2 admins and 1 limited)

(3) I installed/used TweakUI to then remove the more recently added admin
from the login screen and restored 'Administrator' to the login screen

 

[Guest]

Just so the world doesn't think I am an idiot who can't spell, change that
'know' in (1) to 'now'. ;-)

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Hi Thomas, as long as you have at least one Administrator level account available, you should be ok. Many experts recommend against using the built-in Administrator account for day to day use. Use the other Administrator level account you created, and leave the built in one for emergencies.