booting to Administrator

[j lunis]

Vista Home Premium
This should be easy but an internet search came up empty.
I have two problems,
1) my settings for screensaver don't 'take.' I can set the delay for 60
minutes but it seems to start in about 10 minutes.
2) If I want to add/remove a shortcut to my start menu it seems I get
3-4 'Continue' prompts to complete the task.
I have been told these problems are because I am not in Administrator
mode. I am the sole user of this home-based PC and would like to boot
into Administrator by default. I think I know, in XP I could select
Start|Switch User and choose how to log in. When I try Start|Switch
User in Vista, I have no options, just one user shows.
How do I switch users to Administrator?
How do I get the PC to start in Administrator by default?

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Vista Home Premium
This should be easy but an internet search came up empty.
I have two problems,
1) my settings for screensaver don't 'take.' I can set the delay for 60
minutes but it seems to start in about 10 minutes.
2) If I want to add/remove a shortcut to my start menu it seems I get 3-4
'Continue' prompts to complete the task.
I have been told these problems are because I am not in Administrator
mode. I am the sole user of this home-based PC and would like to boot
into Administrator by default. I think I know, in XP I could select
Start|Switch User and choose how to log in. When I try Start|Switch User
in Vista, I have no options, just one user shows.
How do I switch users to Administrator?
How do I get the PC to start in Administrator by default?

You really do not want to boot to Administrator by default, and it likely
won't solve the problem, anyway. The Administrator account is intended
for system setup and emergency maintenance. It should not ever be used as a
standard user account.

What you should do is just ensure that your account has Administrator
permissions, is a member of the Administrator group. Go into Control
Panel, Users, and if you see "computer administrator" under your account
name you have those permissions.

If you don't have these permissions, you would likely not be seeing what you
are. You would be getting messages when you attempted to make changes,
stating that you lack permissions.

If you do have these permissions, booting to Administrator will have the
same results. You may have some other software running, perhaps some kind
of 3rd party system monitor, that is preventing the changes you make from
being made. Or perhaps there is a permissions problem within the registry.
Right-click on the relevant key, choose Permissions, ensure you have
read/write permissions.

If you lack the Admin permsissions, you will need to boot into Admin to
promote your account. But by default, the Administrator account is
disabled. Have a look here for two methods showing to enable and log into
the account, one in regular mode and one in safe mode:
http://www.tech-faq.com/enable-windows-vista-administrator-account.shtml

Then go to Control Panel, Users, and you can change the accounts. Or
right-click on My Computer, choose Manage, then Users and Groups for another
interface that allows you to check and alter which groups you are a member
of.

HTH
-pk

 

[j lunis]

You really do not want to boot to Administrator by default, and it
likely won't solve the problem, anyway. The Administrator account is
intended for system setup and emergency maintenance. It should not ever
be used as a standard user account.

What you should do is just ensure that your account has Administrator
permissions, is a member of the Administrator group. Go into Control
Panel, Users, and if you see "computer administrator" under your account
name you have those permissions.

If you don't have these permissions, you would likely not be seeing what
you are. You would be getting messages when you attempted to make
changes, stating that you lack permissions.

If you do have these permissions, booting to Administrator will have the
same results. You may have some other software running, perhaps some
kind of 3rd party system monitor, that is preventing the changes you
make from being made. Or perhaps there is a permissions problem within
the registry. Right-click on the relevant key, choose Permissions,
ensure you have read/write permissions.

If you lack the Admin permsissions, you will need to boot into Admin to
promote your account. But by default, the Administrator account is
disabled. Have a look here for two methods showing to enable and log
into the account, one in regular mode and one in safe mode:
http://www.tech-faq.com/enable-windows-vista-administrator-account.shtml

Then go to Control Panel, Users, and you can change the accounts. Or
right-click on My Computer, choose Manage, then Users and Groups for
another interface that allows you to check and alter which groups you
are a member of.

HTH
-pk

OK, I checked. Beneath my name is "Administrator' so I suppose I am OK
there.
3rd party system monitor. I have Norton Internet Security. Would that
be it?
Registry entries? Where do I find the 'relevant' key?
I don't have a 'My Computer' on my desktop. I have 'Computer' but it
doesn't have "Users and Groups."

 

[UnswoleLilDude]

This link should help you enable and log in as Administrator in Windows
Vista.
http://www.maximumpcguides.com/logon-windows-vista-as-administrator/

I don't recommend logging in as Administrator. You talk about all the UAC
prompts you don't like. I would first upgrade to SP1 if you haven't yet,
and if that isn't good enough you could just disable UAC in Windows Vista
instead of logging in as Administrator.
http://www.maximumpcguides.com/turn-off-user-account-control/

 

[j lunis]

This link should help you enable and log in as Administrator in Windows
Vista.
http://www.maximumpcguides.com/logon-windows-vista-as-administrator/

I don't recommend logging in as Administrator. You talk about all the
UAC prompts you don't like. I would first upgrade to SP1 if you haven't
yet, and if that isn't good enough you could just disable UAC in Windows
Vista instead of logging in as Administrator.
http://www.maximumpcguides.com/turn-off-user-account-control/

I'm gonna take the advice of you and Patrick and not try logging in as
administrator. I did disable UAC and am much happier. Now I need to
find the reason I can't change the screensaver timing. So far I know(?)
it isn't Norton.