lost administrator user account

[sab3872]

Can anyone please help. I added a new user yesterday along with the
original administrator user. When I came back to my computer, the
administrator was gone and I am locked out of my computer. The new
user only has limited access, so I cannot due a system restore or
anything. I have so many documents I will lose if I format the hard
drive again. I have called Dell and microsoft, and no one will help.
Please any suggestions would be great. Everything I try says access
denied because of the limited user.
Thanks,
Rhonda

 

[Larry Samuels]

Boot to safe mode by tapping F8 at boot-up.
Log in to the Administrator account (Administrator is only visible in safe
mode once a second account is created on XP Home) and give the new account
admin privileges.

--
Customers in the U.S. and Canada can receive technical support from
Microsoft Product Support Services at 1-866-PCSAFETY. There is no charge for
support calls that are associated with security updates
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-

 

[Demmpa]

Can anyone please help. I added a new user yesterday along with the
original administrator user. When I came back to my computer, the
administrator was gone and I am locked out of my computer. The new
user only has limited access, so I cannot due a system restore or
anything. I have so many documents I will lose if I format the hard
drive again. I have called Dell and microsoft, and no one will help.
Please any suggestions would be great. Everything I try says access
denied because of the limited user.
Thanks,
Rhonda

If you have winXPpro you can press CTRL-ALT-DEL too times

 

[sab3872]

Thanks for the reply. We tried that already. It shows there is no
longer an administrative account on our computer. It only recognizes
the limited account. I called the number you provided, but can't get
through to any one to help. They said they had not heard of that
problem before. I can't open, move, delete, install or access anything
because it only recognizes the limited account. The files for that
user are just empty. Everything was stored under the administrative
account.

 

[Larry Samuels]

Ugh--that's nasty.
If you use the recovery option from Dell you will lose all your data. You
need to contact Dell and get them to send you a set of recovery cds. When
you get the CDs you will be able to use the OS disk to perform a repair
install using the instructions below.
How to do a repair install on Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

--
Customers in the U.S. and Canada can receive technical support from
Microsoft Product Support Services at 1-866-PCSAFETY. There is no charge for
support calls that are associated with security updates
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Can anyone please help. I added a new user yesterday along with the
original administrator user. When I came back to my computer, the
administrator was gone and I am locked out of my computer. The new
user only has limited access, so I cannot due a system restore or
anything. I have so many documents I will lose if I format the hard
drive again. I have called Dell and microsoft, and no one will help.
Please any suggestions would be great. Everything I try says access
denied because of the limited user.
Thanks,
Rhonda

As you've discovered, once any additional administrative user
accounts have been created, the built-in 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 was never intended to be
used for day-to-day normal use. The standard security practice is to
rename the account, 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'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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