Can you delete the Administrator account?

[Enkidu]

Cliff -


Ok, possibly the first problem: there are only two user profiles stored on
my computer: COMPUTERNAME\John and Computername\Marsha. Both are members of
the Administrators group. There are no profiles for "All Users" or "Default
User", or "Administrator".

Well, I've just checked and my XP has no "Default User" etc
*profiles*. You are correct, I should have referred to the "default
User" and "All Users" *directories*.

Although there Control Panel, System, User Profiles shows only the two
profiles I mention above, there are folders under C:\Documents and Settings
for John and Marsha as well as "Default User", "All Users", "Administrator",
and (at this moment), "Administrator.COMPUTERNAME" and
"Administrator.COMPUTERNAME.000".

Yes, that is OK, I think. I'd have expected an "Administrator"
profile, but that's probably not being created, because of the
problems.

Search finds corresponding ntuser.dat files in each of those folders except
for the very last of them.

The ntuser.dat file under "Default User" is dated 17 June, the day I got my
machine back with the new HD and restored things from the IBM Recovery CD.
File size is 120 KB. The Name list on the Properties, Security tab lists
"Adminstrators (COMPUTERNAME\Administrators)", "Everyone", and "SYSTEM". All
three have all five sets of permissions set to "Allow" and all five
checkboxes for all three are greyed for allow inheritable permissions.

I think Default User's ntuser.dat might be bad, as both "Administrator" and
"Administrator.COMPUTERNAME"'s ntuser.dat (time-stamped 4:21am today) are
also 120 KB, whereas Marsha's (last checked on 26 Aug) is 340 KB, and John's
(my working account, time-stamped 4:44am today) is 3,148 KB.

So instead of trying to delete the Administrator account, is there a way to
fix the Default User?

What I suggest is that you login as Martha or John and copy the other
one's ntuser.dat to the "Default User" directory. (Save the original
first!) Then cross fingers and login as Administrator. Good luck!

BTW my "Default User" ntuser.dat (XP) is 272KB.

Cheers,

Cliff