Can Administrator users be removed

[Sherrie Gentry]

I reformatted my computer and did a clean install of Win2000. Everything
works fine but in Users and Passwords I have Administrator, Guest, and My
Name. Administrator and My Name are both in the Administrator group. Can I
remove the entry that says Adminstrator without creating problems? I'm the
only one that uses this computer. Occasionally I accidently get logged into
the Administrator user and getting rid of it would stop that. All of my
settings are under the My Name user.

Thanks!

 

[Andrei Ungureanu]

Administrator account is one of the builtin user account and can not be
deleted. I don't understand how can someone log on accidentally on some
other account. Assign a strong password for this account ... and use your
regular account for day to day tasks.

 

[Holger Pollmann]

Administrator and My Name are both in the Administrator group.
Can I remove the entry that says Adminstrator without creating
problems?

No. Apart from the fact that the account is, as Andrei said, built-in,
the Administrator account in some rare occasions is different from any
additional user with administrative privileges, meaning that sometimes
you might need not only administrative rights, but actually be logged
in with the "Administrator" user.

Besides that, I would highly recommend NOT using a user with
administratives privileges as your everyday user account, that is a
security problem.

 

[Sherrie Gentry]

OK, I'll leave it. There actually is no security risk here because it's on
my personal PC and I'm the only one here. There are no other users. I went
in as Administrator and made my user account under my name to be an
Administrator also. That's where all of my personal settings are. Nothing
has been installed through the original Administrator account. I don't know
how I ended up with two user accounts since I'm the only user. It seems
like I had that in XP also.

 

[Sherrie Gentry]

I think I understand now. Windows assigns that account and it controls the
rest. I'm the only one that uses this computer and since I made my personal
account an Administrator also, I'll put a password on the default
Administrator account so that I won't get logged into it. I bypassed
passwords on both accounts originally because there is nobody but me. It's
an annoyance to have to logoff the one and login to the other.

 

[Holger Pollmann]

OK, I'll leave it. There actually is no security risk here
because it's on my personal PC and I'm the only one here.

Yes, it IS a security leak. E.g. a virus that gets onto your computer
will be able to do anythign with administrative privileges, whereas a
virus that only has normal user priviliges can't mess aroudn with
important things like your system directory.

I don't know how I ended up with two user accounts since I'm the
only user. It seems like I had that in XP also.

The Administrator account is automatically created as the main
Administrator account, and after that, the installation process at some
point makes you create at least one "normal" user. The fact that this
normal user gets administrative rights doesn't change anythign about
the main Admin user.

[Fullquote snipped]

Btw, it's easier to read if you put your response BELOW the quote (and
cut the quote to only the parts you are actually responding to).

 

[Sherrie Gentry]

Yes, it IS a security leak. E.g. a virus that gets onto your computer
will be able to do anythign with administrative privileges, whereas a
virus that only has normal user priviliges can't mess aroudn with
important things like your system directory.

I went in and put a password on the Administrator account. When you said
security problem I was thinking other users.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I reformatted my computer and did a clean install of Win2000. Everything
works fine but in Users and Passwords I have Administrator, Guest, and My
Name. Administrator and My Name are both in the Administrator group. Can I
remove the entry that says Adminstrator without creating problems? I'm the
only one that uses this computer. Occasionally I accidently get logged into
the Administrator user and getting rid of it would stop that. All of my
settings are under the My Name user.

Thanks!

The built-in Administrator account cannot be deleted, nor should it be.
It isn't intended to be used for day-to-day normal use. The standard
security practice is to set a strong password on it and use it only to
create another account for regular use, reserving the Administrator
account as a "back door" in case something corrupts your regular
account(s).


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Sherrie Gentry]

The built-in Administrator account cannot be deleted, nor should it be.
It isn't intended to be used for day-to-day normal use. The standard
security practice is to set a strong password on it and use it only to
create another account for regular use, reserving the Administrator
account as a "back door" in case something corrupts your regular
account(s).


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

I went ahead and put a password on it for safety sake. The reason I got in
there by accident this morning was because I didn't have a password on it
and I was trying to figure out why a friend of mine was having problems with
her new 2000 install. She upgraded from 98se and she can't log in to
Administrator even though she is the Administrator. She thought she didn't
put a password on it but now she remembers that she did. It still won't let
her in so she thinks she entered the password wrong the first time. Now I
have to find a way for her to reset it. I was snooping around in mine and
logged into Administrator by mistake. I figured my problem out but now I
need to figure hers out.

I don't work in my Administrator profile. I always work in the one under my
name. Putting a password on the default Administrator profile will keep me
out unless I intend to get in.

 

[Gary Smith]

Yes, it IS a security leak. E.g. a virus that gets onto your computer
will be able to do anythign with administrative privileges, whereas a
virus that only has normal user priviliges can't mess aroudn with
important things like your system directory.

It's true that running with administrator privileges is less secure than
running with a lesser privileges, but so many things require administrator
privileges to operate successfully that for some of us the hassle of
switching back and forth between accounts just is too high a cost to pay
for the increase in security.

 

[Holger Pollmann]

It's true that running with administrator privileges is less
secure than running with a lesser privileges, but so many things
require administrator privileges to operate successfully that for
some of us the hassle of switching back and forth between accounts
just is too high a cost to pay for the increase in security.

Usually you don't have to.

You can right-click+shift any file on the hard drive and most items in
the Control panel (i.e., hold shift down and right-click), and then you
can select "run as" or something liek that (sorry, I have the German
version).

Then you can choose to run the program under a different account - if
for example you install a program that for installing (but not running)
needs administrator privileges, you simply run it as Administrator.
When the installation process finishes, the thing is installed with
admin rigths and you are still logged on as the normal user.

Only very rarely do I log on as the Administrator, but my normal user
does not have admin rights. It works.

 

[Gary Smith]

You can right-click+shift any file on the hard drive and most items in
the Control panel (i.e., hold shift down and right-click), and then you
can select "run as" or something liek that (sorry, I have the German
version).

Then you can choose to run the program under a different account - if
for example you install a program that for installing (but not running)
needs administrator privileges, you simply run it as Administrator.
When the installation process finishes, the thing is installed with
admin rigths and you are still logged on as the normal user.

Yeah, you can, but that's a lot more trouble than I'm willing to go to.
RunAs would be good if the need for it were rare, but it's not feasible
for me on a day-to-day basis.

 

[Holger Pollmann]

Yeah, you can, but that's a lot more trouble than I'm willing to
go to. RunAs would be good if the need for it were rare, but it's
not feasible for me on a day-to-day basis.

Well, I do it on a day-to-day basis and actually don't need it that
often. I prefer having good security over having to put up with the
seldom need to enter a password for Run As... but to everyone his own, I
guess.