log-in as a 'real' administrator in XP home edition

[Guest]

Eventhough I am listed as a computer administrator in my personal account, I
am prevented to execute a program like regedit.exe with an error message
"Registry editing has been disabled by your administrator. This means I am
not a 'real' administrator. Only in Safe Mode, I can log-in as a 'real'
administrator, so that I can execute regedit. I am often prevented to
execute some programs in Regular Mode because of my 'false' status of
administrator. I am an original owner of my PC initially setup by myself.
Is there any way to log-in as real administrator? I cannot see a real
administrator in XP Welcome window. I can see the real administrator in Safe
Mode Welcome window. Please help! Max

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Virus check your system with the latest definitions for your AV program. If
that shows nothing try using Ctrl-Alt-Del twice @ the Welcome screen.

--


Will Denny
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Steve N.]

Eventhough I am listed as a computer administrator in my personal account, I
am prevented to execute a program like regedit.exe with an error message
"Registry editing has been disabled by your administrator. This means I am
not a 'real' administrator. Only in Safe Mode, I can log-in as a 'real'
administrator, so that I can execute regedit. I am often prevented to
execute some programs in Regular Mode because of my 'false' status of
administrator. I am an original owner of my PC initially setup by myself.
Is there any way to log-in as real administrator? I cannot see a real
administrator in XP Welcome window. I can see the real administrator in Safe
Mode Welcome window. Please help! Max

For XP Home the only way to access the built in Administrator account is
via Safe Mode. As a trouble shooting measure when logged in as
Administrator create a new admin account and see if you can access
regedit using it. You may be ealing with a corrupt user account. Also
viruses and malware can prevent regedit from executing in normal mode,
so make sure the system is clean.

Steve N.

 

[Steve N.]

Hi

Virus check your system with the latest definitions for your AV program. If
that shows nothing try using Ctrl-Alt-Del twice @ the Welcome screen.

It's XP Home, Will.

Steve N.

 

[John Wunderlich]

Eventhough I am listed as a computer administrator in my personal
account, I am prevented to execute a program like regedit.exe with
an error message "Registry editing has been disabled by your
administrator. This means I am not a 'real' administrator. Only
in Safe Mode, I can log-in as a 'real' administrator, so that I
can execute regedit. I am often prevented to execute some
programs in Regular Mode because of my 'false' status of
administrator. I am an original owner of my PC initially setup by
myself. Is there any way to log-in as real administrator? I
cannot see a real administrator in XP Welcome window. I can see
the real administrator in Safe Mode Welcome window. Please help!
Max

This is because of a policy setting.
This should be correctable by modifying a registry entry.

Refer to the article:
"“Prevent Access to Registry Editing Tools” policy changes in Windows
XP and in Windows Server 2003"

<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831787/en-us>

HTH,
John

 

[Keith Miller MVP]

You are a real administrator -- you just the victim of a policy setting:

1) Go into SafeMode and run regedit.

2) select 'HKEY_USERS', then, from the menu, File -> Load Hive

3) browse to your normal userprofile directory and select the 'ntuser.dat' file

4) Give it any name you like, this is temporary. We'll call it 'Bob' for this example.

5) Check the following key:

"HKEY_USERS\Bob\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System"

and look for a value named 'DisableRegistryTools' and delete it.

6) Hi-lite "HKEY_USERS\Bob" and click File -> Unload Hive

Logout and log in as your regular user, you should be able to run regedit.