Administrator Account

G

Guest

Just recently I made a user account for myself as an Administrator and
deleted the actual Administrator account without deleting the files, is there
any way to get the Administrator account back and showing in the user
accounts section in the control panel, or is it a lost cause.
 
S

Shenan Stanley

Lee said:
Just recently I made a user account for myself as an Administrator
and deleted the actual Administrator account without deleting the
files, is there any way to get the Administrator account back and
showing in the user accounts section in the control panel, or is it
a lost cause.

You cannot delete the built-in administrator account.

You can delete the administrator's profiles directory, rename the user or
you could even disable the administrator account (built-in) - but you cannot
delete the account.
 
G

Guest

That's what I meant sorry for the confusion, when you open up the user
accounts, there is the guest account, the one I made myself and no
Administrator account, now if it's only the profile that I deleted and not
the actual account how do I get the Administrator profile showing back in the
user accounts page, or can't it be done.
 
M

Malke

Lee said:
That's what I meant sorry for the confusion, when you open up the user
accounts, there is the guest account, the one I made myself and no
Administrator account, now if it's only the profile that I deleted and not
the actual account how do I get the Administrator profile showing back in the
user accounts page, or can't it be done.

You haven't given much information, but I'm going to guess that you have
XP Pro and you were using the built-in Administrator account for your
daily work (bad idea). It is by design that when you create a second
user account with administrative privileges, the built-in Administrator
account disappears from the Welcome Screen. The account is still there
and you can copy all your data and settings from it to your new account.
You will need a third account from which to work, so go to Control
Panel>User Accounts and create an extra account with administrative
privileges. Then follow these instructions:

Copy a User Account - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=811151


Malke
 
G

Guest

Right here goes, I am using XP Pro SP2, what I did was I clicked on
Start-->Control Panel-->User Accounts in which there was an Administrator
account and a Guest account. I then made an account with myself as Computer
Administrator, and then deleted the Administrator Account profile without
deleting the files for it. The said Administrator Account no longer shows up
in Start-->Control Panel-->User Accounts so how can I recover it so that it
does show up in Start-->Control Panel-->User Accounts along with my account
and the guest account or is it no longer possible to do that.
 
M

Malke

Lee said:
Right here goes, I am using XP Pro SP2, what I did was I clicked on
Start-->Control Panel-->User Accounts in which there was an Administrator
account and a Guest account. I then made an account with myself as Computer
Administrator, and then deleted the Administrator Account profile without
deleting the files for it. The said Administrator Account no longer shows up
in Start-->Control Panel-->User Accounts so how can I recover it so that it
does show up in Start-->Control Panel-->User Accounts along with my account
and the guest account or is it no longer possible to do that.

You cannot delete the built-in Administrator account. It is still
unclear to me whether the "Administrator account" to which you refer was
the built-in one or not.

Go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management. Expand the
Local Users and Groups category. Left-click on the Users folder (this is
all in the left-side panel). In the right-side panel you will see all
the user accounts on the system, including some system accounts such as
Guest, HelpAssistant, Support_[some number].

Post back with what you see. Also include in this post your end goal;
i.e., whether you want to copy data/settings from one user account to
another, etc.


Malke
 
G

Guest

Yes it's the built in Administrator account, and yes I do know that you can't
delete THE account, but as I said it is not showing up in the Start-->Control
Panel-->User Accounts section. I went to Start-->Control
Panel-->Administrative Tools-->Computer Management, expanded the users folder
and the user accounts that were there are Administrator, ASP.NET (which I
assume is standard when you install the .net updates)Guest, Help Assistant,
Lee (which is the one I put on) and support_xxxxxxxx the end goal as you put
it is to have the inbuilt Administrator Account recovered and showing back in
the Start-->Control Panel-->User Accounts section along with my account and
the guest account.

Malke said:
Lee said:
Right here goes, I am using XP Pro SP2, what I did was I clicked on
Start-->Control Panel-->User Accounts in which there was an Administrator
account and a Guest account. I then made an account with myself as Computer
Administrator, and then deleted the Administrator Account profile without
deleting the files for it. The said Administrator Account no longer shows up
in Start-->Control Panel-->User Accounts so how can I recover it so that it
does show up in Start-->Control Panel-->User Accounts along with my account
and the guest account or is it no longer possible to do that.

You cannot delete the built-in Administrator account. It is still
unclear to me whether the "Administrator account" to which you refer was
the built-in one or not.

Go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management. Expand the
Local Users and Groups category. Left-click on the Users folder (this is
all in the left-side panel). In the right-side panel you will see all
the user accounts on the system, including some system accounts such as
Guest, HelpAssistant, Support_[some number].

Post back with what you see. Also include in this post your end goal;
i.e., whether you want to copy data/settings from one user account to
another, etc.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
 
M

Malke

Lee said:
Yes it's the built in Administrator account, and yes I do know that you can't
delete THE account, but as I said it is not showing up in the Start-->Control
Panel-->User Accounts section. I went to Start-->Control
Panel-->Administrative Tools-->Computer Management, expanded the users folder
and the user accounts that were there are Administrator, ASP.NET (which I
assume is standard when you install the .net updates)Guest, Help Assistant,
Lee (which is the one I put on) and support_xxxxxxxx the end goal as you put
it is to have the inbuilt Administrator Account recovered and showing back in
the Start-->Control Panel-->User Accounts section along with my account and
the guest account.

There is no "recovery" necessary since you did not delete the account.
There is no reason to have the account show in the User Accounts applet
because in XP Pro you normally control user accounts from the
Administrative Tools applet (where you just were). You should not be
using the Administrator account except in an emergency, which is why it
is hidden by design whenever a second user account with administrative
privileges is created. It would be better practice to simply copy the
data/settings from the built-in Administrator account to the "Lee"
account and use that instead.

If you wish, you can show the built-in Administrator account on the
Welcome Screen if you are using that function.

Enable Administrator account on Welcome Screen (MVP Doug Knox) -
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_admin_ok.htm


Malke
 

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