administrator

[ned sokoloff]

i accidently assigned a make believe user as the
administrator. now i can't get into my e mail because xp
won't recognise me as the administrator and i can't
remember if i assigned a password and i am locked out of
everything. i simply want to reassign me as the
administrator and return things the way they were. i
can't even find a list of users. i go to control panel
and click users but i only get me and cannot change my
status because i am not administrator. i need to find out
which user (non user) is administrator have him assigne me
administrator and then i can have just my wife and i with
me as administrator and we can then both have complete
access. how do i do it?

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP-Windows Shell/User\)]

If you have XP Pro on your computer, at the log in screen type
ctrl-alt-delete
twice. In the user account type administrator, leave the password blank and
press enter. You likely didn't create a password for this hidden account
during setup and if the computer was purchased with XP pre-installed it
doesn't likely have one either,

If you have Home, boot into Safe Mode (F8 after the post test and before
Windows starts. Once Windows starts loading, you've missed it and will have
to try again). You'll have an option to log on as Administrator. Again,
the same procedure, you'll be asked to log in to get into safe mode, type
administrator, leave the password blank and press enter.

This will get you in. Then go to Control Panel, user accounts and change
your user designation to Administrator. That should allow you to log in as
administrator. You can also change the password of the current
administrator, copy the data files you need from that user to the new user
you created and in the future, be sure to create a password reset disk. In
User Accounts, when you open the account to change it, there should be an
option in the left pane that offers the option to prevent a forgotten
password, this is where you create a password reset disk.

 

[rifleman]

In

i accidently assigned a make believe user as the
administrator. now i can't get into my e mail because xp
won't recognise me as the administrator and i can't
remember if i assigned a password and i am locked out of
everything. i simply want to reassign me as the
administrator and return things the way they were. i
can't even find a list of users. i go to control panel
and click users but i only get me and cannot change my
status because i am not administrator. i need to find out
which user (non user) is administrator have him assigne me
administrator and then i can have just my wife and i with
me as administrator and we can then both have complete
access. how do i do it?

You ought to seriously consider setting up another user for yourself, (and
giving the user Administrator rights) rather than using Administrator as
your daily log-in. What happens for example, if you do something by accident
that screws up your log-in when logged-in as Administrator? You're stuffed,
because you then have no Administrator log-in to correct the problem!

 

[rifleman]

In

I don't believe he named the user administrator and usually the
system will not allow you to create a user with that name.

The Op said (quote) " now i can't get into my e mail because xp
won't recognise me as the administrator and i can't
remember if i assigned a password and i am locked out of
everything. " which indicates to me that he normally logs on as
Administrator.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP-Windows Shell/User\)]

Actually, that's a little out of context, check the first sentence as
follows:
i accidently assigned a make believe user as the
As far as I know, XP will not allow the use of the word, "Administrator" to
be used as a user name. I can certainly understand how you might have
inferred that individual might have done that. However, it is also just as
likely that when he said the system wouldn't recognize him as the
administrator that he was referring to his user account not necessarily
named "administrator" but having administrative rights nonetheless.

 

[rifleman]

In

Actually, that's a little out of context, check the first sentence as
follows:
i accidently assigned a make believe user as the

As far as I know, XP will not allow the use of the word,
"Administrator" to be used as a user name. I can certainly
understand how you might have inferred that individual might have
done that. However, it is also just as likely that when he said the
system wouldn't recognize him as the administrator that he was
referring to his user account not necessarily named "administrator"
but having administrative rights nonetheless.

Oh well, whatever...in any case my advice about not using Administrator to
log-in on a daily basis is still good!

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP-Windows Shell/User\)]

You are correct, if managed to use "Administrator" is the user name, it's a
good idea not to do that.