Administrator - - - How to make contact with

[Guest]

In setting up my users, I *cleverly* decided not to be the Administrator,
but to have one with a password. (No problem so far.) I would have myself
also named as Administrator #2 and a third user Guest. However when I needed
to alter a program, I was refused permission. Needless to say I am unable to
contact the original Administrator - - - or am I?

Question #1, what is that way to contact the original Administrator, and

Question #2, does the computer necessarily need to have an Administrator?

Many thanks in advance. David (hidihox2)

 

[Malke]

In setting up my users, I *cleverly* decided not to be the
Administrator, but to have one with a password. (No problem so far.) I
would have myself also named as Administrator #2 and a third user
Guest. However when I needed to alter a program, I was refused
permission. Needless to say I am unable to contact the original
Administrator - - - or am I?

Question #1, what is that way to contact the original Administrator,
and

Question #2, does the computer necessarily need to have an
Administrator?

I'm really not sure what you mean by "contact the original
Administrator". You mean how do you log into the built-in Administrator
account?

In XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do this by repeatedly
tapping the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will get you to
the right menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key; the mouse will not
work here. Once in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden
Administrator account. The default password is a blank.

In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen,
do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in
"Administrator" and whatever password you assigned when you set up
Windows.

If you reset the built-in Administrator account's password in Home or
have Pro and don't remember the password, use NTpasswd to change the
built-in Administrator account's password to a blank. Then go to the
User Accounts applet in Control Panel and set passwords that you will
remember and make other desired changes.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Of course the operating system needs to have an Administrator. That is
the way real multi-user operating systems (Linux, Unix, NT-based, etc.)
work. Someone has to be god on the system - in Windows this user is
called "Administrator". It is better to create other user accounts and
not run as the built-in Administrator regularly.

Malke

 

[Gordon]

In setting up my users, I *cleverly* decided not to be the
Administrator, but to have one with a password. (No problem so far.)
I would have myself also named as Administrator #2 and a third user
Guest. However when I needed to alter a program, I was refused
permission. Needless to say I am unable to contact the original
Administrator - - - or am I?

Question #1, what is that way to contact the original Administrator,
and

Question #2, does the computer necessarily need to have an
Administrator?

Many thanks in advance. David (hidihox2)

And in addition to what Malke says, disable the Guest account. It's a
security risk. if you need a "casual user" account, then create a limited
account and call it "visitor" or something similar.