Help, I have lost my administrator rights

[Guest]

Hi, Can you help. When playing with the controls on the start up of my PC I
somehow managed to lose my administrator and now can only use my PC as a
second user. I have no idea what my administrator pass word is so am unable
to sign in and get it back to how it was. I can not even run things like the
disc defrag and put new programs on so it will only be a matter of time
before I run to a grinding halt. Any help on how to basicly install a new
administrator or how to get the pass word would be great.
This is a second hand PC and sadly I do not have many of the instalation
discs that I hope I do not need . HELP PLEASE Cheers, Jon.

 

[Guest]

I'm in the same situation. If you get a response, could you please e-mail me
the answer? (e-mail address removed)

 

[Newtechie]

Hi Jon and Bob,

If you guys can get into the Control Panel, go into User Accounts and set up
new accounts there and set them as administrator. When you've done that,
copy and paste all your files to the new account from the old account using
the Windows Explorer.

Newtechie

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi, Can you help. When playing with the controls on the start up of my PC I
somehow managed to lose my administrator and now can only use my PC as a
second user. I have no idea what my administrator pass word is so am unable
to sign in and get it back to how it was. I can not even run things like the
disc defrag and put new programs on so it will only be a matter of time
before I run to a grinding halt. Any help on how to basicly install a new
administrator or how to get the pass word would be great.
This is a second hand PC and sadly I do not have many of the instalation
discs that I hope I do not need . HELP PLEASE Cheers, Jon.

As you've just learned, once any additional user accounts have been
created, the Administrator account will no longer be displayed on the
Welcome Screen. This is a default security feature. By design, the
only way to log into the Administrator account of WinXP Home is to
reboot into Safe Mode. For WinXP Pro, pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL twice at
the Welcome Screen will produce the standard login dialog box.

The built-in Administrator account really 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).

A wiser course of action would be to create another user account
for your daily use, as you say you've done, and copy desired the files
and settings from the Administrator account to this newly created user
profile.

HOW TO Create and Configure User Accounts in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279783

How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811151


--

Bruce Chambers

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