Administrator account logon - Windows Vista

[Guest]

Any idea how one logs on as *the* administrator under WinVista Beta 2?

As part of the installation I did create a password for the built-in
adminstrator account and afterwards I created a user account with admin
privilege. I now use this user account for my work but I want to logon as
the built-in administrator. The problem is that I can't seem to get WinVista
to even give me a login screen that allows me to specify the username
("administrator"). Help??

 

[Mark Dietz]

Start the system in safe mode. It will then show you Administrator on the
screen. From here, you want to log in as Administrator, open up computer
management by right clicking on "Computer" and selecting manage. Under computer
management, select the users and groups, then users. You will need to enable the
Administrator account, and I would also set a password. There is then a registry
hack that needs run to add the account to the welcome screen under normal boot,
but I'm not sure what exactly it is. This "hack" is the same as the one used in
XP, so if you find it for XP, you've found it for Vista.

 

[Zack Uribe]

1) Anytime you run into an issue that seems like it HAD to have come up
before.....search these forums...A search with "administrator" as the
subject comes up with...


Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management.
Under 'System Tools' select 'Local Users and Groups', click on users, right
click on Administrator, and click on
Properties.
When I unchecked 'Account is Disabled', I was asked for a password. I closed
everything and rebooted. At the login screen, there is an
option to 'switch user'.

Selecting this shows two buttons, one for my 'current' login and another
called 'other user'. When I select 'other user'
the login screen changes to ask for a user name and password. If I use
Administrator for the username and the password that I set when I enabled
the
Administrator, I login as the Administrator.


p.s. Not a personal attack..just tired of people being to lazy to search. I
have seen the 'When will this expire" question 3-5 times today...

 

[Guest]

Uh, yeah, OK...next time I will do what you suggest -- search first for an
answer. Not sure how that would have helped in this case since I actually
DID do a search first but the suggestions I got did not help (admittedly, I
was using a narrower search criteria). More to the point, the suggestion(s)
that were posted (including the thread preceeding this reply) did not help.
Thanx anyway.

 

[Zack Uribe]

Ok, so what part of Uncheck "Disable Administrator account" did not work for
you?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Especially the questions: "what anti-virus programs work?" and "where's a
driver for my device?"

 

[Guest]

The part that didn't work was the part about "Uncheck the 'Disabling the
Administrator account'"...I already have it unchecked. And even when I
re-enabled (checked it) and then later, after re-boot, unchecked it, I was
never prompted for a password before doing so as the threads below suggest.
And at no time (with the Admin account enabled) upon reboot was I ever given
an option from the Win Vista logon screen to logon as anything but the
standard account (which does have admin privilege).

All that said, I did find subsequent threads on this forum and on the MSDN
forum describing adding a reg-key to re-enable the option to logon as a
built-in admin. I will try this later. My concern is that this reg key
procedure may not work with the current (Beta 2) build of Win Vista.

Thanx in any event. I'm inching closer (I think) to an understanding if not
solution...

 

[Zapper]

Ok, as long as you say where you got stuck.

Make sure you re-enable the administrator account again
The Administrator password is blank...do not worry about setting one...

To be able to log into the administrator password at the boot screen you can
either go into safe mode(I have not done it) or you can go into
Administrator Tool-Local Security Policy-Security Options- Interactive
Logono Not display las user name-ENABLE

You will then get a blank box when you boot. Type in Administrator, leave
the password blank and you will be running Vista In administrator mode

 

[Guest]

OK, this sounds promising and I will try it when I can get back to my
WinVista machine. But I am a tad confused/uncertain:

I understand the part about setting the Local Security Policy so that
Windows login does NOT display the last user name. But does this work on
WinVista where you only get a "graphical" login screen? I mean, unlike WinXP
where the login screen is a dialog box where I can enter any
username/password.

Thanx!

 

[Zapper]

yes, it works in winvista...
You will get a blank icon, and blank user name and blank password
field...enter which user you want(current, or Administrator)

 

[Guest]

Thank you very much. I will try this as soon.

-Tim