Administrator Account for Non-XP Pro Machines

[Guest]

Hi, I've been looking at some of these posts regarding the hidden
administrator account and there seems to be only one way to rename the
account. However in XP Home there is no such Group Policy Object Editor, so
is there another way (for XP Home Users) to rename the administrator account ?
And while we're on the subject, how would you make a password for it as well ?
(Probably from control panel i'm guessing, but any other methods, anyone ?)

 

[Guest]

Simply-put: No. Actually, you shouldn't even be using the Administrator
account.
If the administrator account is the only account you have, create a new
account. You can name it anything, because when you are done, you are just
going to delete it. Just make sure you give it Administrator privliges. Log
into this new account. Create another new account with the user name that you
want, and choose carefully, because this account you are going to keep. Once
you have created the new account, log in to it. Then log back into the other
temporary account and copy the Administrator profile to your new PERMANENT
account. To do this
1. go to the System Control Panel
2. click advanced
3. click Change in the user profiles section
4. Select the profile with the name you don't like/want
5. Click copy to
6. Click browse, navigate to the Documents and Settings folder, and click on
your NEW user account

When you are done, log into your new account. All of your settings and docs
should be there. If they are, go back into the System Control Panel, click
advanced, and select the Administrator profile. Click Delete (you will no
longer need this account, and anyway, now that you have a new one, you cant
use it). Then close out of the System Control Panel, and go into the User
Accounts Control Panel. Delete the temporary account that you made, since you
no longer need that account.

And that's it.

Hope this helps,
-Christopher Isherwood

 

[Malke]

Ummm, sorry but I am not talking about setting up new accounts for
use, I was referring to protecting the hidden Administrator account
you can access by
default without a password in safe mode. If someone wanted to protect
that account in XP Home by renaming it and sticking a password on it,
how would you go about that ?

Log into the normally hidden Administrator account in Safe Mode. Go to
the User Accounts applet and set your password. You can rename the
account there; understand that it will not change any of the underlying
files/folders in the account.

For the type of fine-grained permissions and protection that you are
asking about in this post and in your other post, you would be better
off upgrading to XP Pro.

Otherwise, look at the Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit for more
options for XP Home:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/default.mspx

Malke

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Chrissy;
There is no need to rename it.
Simply reboot to Safe Mode.
Go to User Accounts in the Control Panel.
Select Administrator.
Select the option to set a password.

 

[Nepatsfan]

(e-mail address removed),

Ummm, sorry but I am not talking about setting up new
accounts for use, I was referring to protecting the hidden
Administrator account you can access by default without a
password in safe mode. If someone wanted to protect that
account in XP Home by renaming it and sticking a password on
it, how would you go about that ?

Boot into Safe Mode.
Log on with the Administrator account.
Go into Control Panel.
Open User Accounts.
Click on the Administrator icon.
Click on "Change password".
Enter the new password twice along with a hint.
Hit the "Create password" button.

I would strongly recommend creating a password reset disk if
your system has a floppy drive. You can then store the disk in
a safe location. To create a password reset disk, click on
"Prevent a forgotten password" under Related Tasks in User
Accounts.

If you don't have a floppy drive in this system, make sure you
create a password that you'll remember but others cannot guess.
Also, I know of no way to rename the Administrator account in
XP Home.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Guest]

Hello again, and I just want to say thanks for your help guys, I've got it
sorted now. I'd like to point out however to you Malke that it isn't
actually possible to rename the in-built administrator in safe mode from the
control panel users applet, only adding or changing the password is possible.
I did try but the option wasn't there. I'm not sure but it might be
possible when only the default administrator and guest account exists...I
came across a site which seemed to show that.
And for the sake of knowledge, it is actually possible to rename the hidden
administrator account under Windows XP Home. Nepatsfan, I found out how to
do it.
It's here.
http://www.leeindy.com/renadmin4.shtml

Modifying the Administrator user name from the
Start - Run - Control Userpasswords2
User Accounts Area

I did this from an administrator-level account of course, and it worked,
well my PC is still running.

 

[Malke]

Hello again, and I just want to say thanks for your help guys, I've
got it
sorted now. I'd like to point out however to you Malke that it isn't
actually possible to rename the in-built administrator in safe mode
from the control panel users applet, only adding or changing the
password is possible.
I did try but the option wasn't there. I'm not sure but it might be
possible when only the default administrator and guest account
exists...I came across a site which seemed to show that.
And for the sake of knowledge, it is actually possible to rename the
hidden
administrator account under Windows XP Home. Nepatsfan, I found out
how to do it.
It's here.
http://www.leeindy.com/renadmin4.shtml

Modifying the Administrator user name from the
Start - Run - Control Userpasswords2
User Accounts Area

I did this from an administrator-level account of course, and it
worked, well my PC is still running.

Thanks for the information. I still feel that if you need the kind of
security and ability to set permissions, etc. that you are seeking,
you'd do better to upgrade to Pro.

Malke

 

[Nepatsfan]

(e-mail address removed),

Hello again, and I just want to say thanks for your help
guys, I've got it sorted now. I'd like to point out however
to you Malke that it isn't actually possible to rename the
in-built administrator in safe mode from the control panel
users applet, only adding or changing the password is
possible. I did try but the option wasn't there. I'm not
sure but it might be possible when only the default
administrator and guest account exists...I came across a
site which seemed to show that.
And for the sake of knowledge, it is actually possible to
rename the hidden administrator account under Windows XP
Home. Nepatsfan, I found out how to do it.
It's here.
http://www.leeindy.com/renadmin4.shtml

Modifying the Administrator user name from the
Start - Run - Control Userpasswords2
User Accounts Area

I did this from an administrator-level account of course,
and it worked, well my PC is still running.

Thanks for the info.

Nepatsfan