Removing Programs

[Joe McGuire]

After removing most AOL programs (and other unwanted stuff) from our new XP
computer we found that one, AOL Coach v.1.0 could not be removed because
"You do not have sufficient access to remove [it]; Please contact your
system administrator." Not to be rhetorical, but exactly who is the
"administrator" we are to contact for a stand-alone machine used at home?
Evidently, it must not be ourselves (actually, the only user of the machine
is my wife except for my attempts to help and to keep her from throwing it
at me when she gets frustrated with it), for in something called User
Accounts she is identified as the Computer Administrator. How can we fix
this? Is there some special way she has to login (we posted a separate
message about getting rid of that pesky login) not in her own capacity but
as herself in another capacity? Help!

 

[Andrew Murray]

"administrator" is the built-in user account in XP.

The message is saying you must have admin priviledges to uninstall the
program. WHen you installed XP it should have asked you to create a user
account, which I think gives you admin rights to start with, unless you
otherwise specify.

In effect *you* are the Administrator of *your* computer when using a user
account with admin rights. The default "administrator" is for 'emergencies'
rather than every day use eg if you forget a password, the 'administrator'
account can be used to reset the other user's accounts, passwords etc.

 

[bxf]

"administrator" is the built-in user account in XP.

The message is saying you must have admin priviledges to uninstall the
program. WHen you installed XP it should have asked you to create a user
account, which I think gives you admin rights to start with, unless you
otherwise specify.

In effect *you* are the Administrator of *your* computer when using a user
account with admin rights. The default "administrator" is for 'emergencies'
rather than every day use eg if you forget a password, the 'administrator'
account can be used to reset the other user's accounts, passwords etc.

Nice explanation, but I suspect that Joe's real problem is that, given
that "in something called User Accounts she is identified as the
Computer Administrator", why is the stupid message appearing?

 

[Joe McGuire]

Amen!

Nice explanation, but I suspect that Joe's real problem is that, given
that "in something called User Accounts she is identified as the
Computer Administrator", why is the stupid message appearing?

 

[Squire]

Joe, have you tried booting in Safe mode ?
Start hitting the F8 key every second as soon as you see anything on the
screen, then select safe mode from the menu.

Select Administrator and let the system continue booting.
You should be able to delete the program then.

Jerry