No Administrator; Locked out

[Guest]

Hi.

From what I understand is that the Administrator account is disabled by
default. I have Vista Home Premium, so I can't enable it with lusrmgr.msc. I
forgot my own account password, the only active administrator on the
computer. Is there any way to enable the Administrator account without
needing to know my password?

 

[Guest]

Sorry.

And another thing: For those of you who saw my last question about regedit
(which I doubt many of you have seen or remember), this is another computer
I'm dealing with.

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Hi.

From what I understand is that the Administrator account is disabled by
default. I have Vista Home Premium, so I can't enable it with lusrmgr.msc. I
forgot my own account password, the only active administrator on the
computer. Is there any way to enable the Administrator account without
needing to know my password?

Hello,

Can you log in to your computer at all?

 

[Guest]

no sir.

Hello,

Can you log in to your computer at all?

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Ok...

Well, there is a way out of this situation, but it is very complex, and
requires you to have the Windows installation DVD.

(For pictures, please view these instructions on my website):

http://www.jimmah.com/vista/Administration/locked_out_of_admin.aspx

1 Click on the start orb. Write down your username (the name listed
right below your picture on the start menu).
2 Place your Windows Installation DVD into your DVD drive
3 Restart your computer
4 When prompted, press a key on your keyboard to boot from the DVD
5 Select your language options and click Next (See picture)
6 Select the option at the bottom to repair your computer (See picture)
7 Select your Windows installation from the list. Make sure you notate
what drive letter it is installed on.
8 Select the last option from the list to open a Command Prompt (See
picture)
9 Type the following command, and press enter:

regedit

10 On the left, click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
11 Click the File menu at the top, and then click Load Hive
12 Open "computer"
13 Double-click on the drive that Windows is installed on (you wrote
this drive letter down in step 7)
14 Double-click on the folder called Windows
15 Double-click on the folder called System32
16 Double-click on the folder called Config
17 Click on the file called SAM and click Open
18 Type "Target SAM" into the box and click OK
19 Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder by clicking on the triangle next
to it
20 Expand the Target SAM folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
21 Expand the SAM folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
22 Expand the Domains folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
23 Expand the Accounts folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
24 Expand the Users folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
25 Click on the folder named 000001F4
26 Double-click the item in the right called "F"

You are now presented with an editor. You will see two columns: a list
of letters and numbers grouped in pairs on the left, with a list of
symbols on the right. We will only be using the list of letters and
numbers on the left.

27 Find the spot in the left column that says "11".
28 Click to the immediate right of the 11, so that the flashing
insertion line is to the immediate right of 11
29 Press backspace to make the 11 disappear
30 Using the keyboard, type the number 10

This should change the information in the left column from

02,00,01,00,00,00,00,00,80,8c,d7,b2,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,
00,1f,ea,fd,ad,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,de,ad,60,9b,e9,97,
c7,01,f4,01,00,00,01,02,00,00,11, ...

TO:

02,00,01,00,00,00,00,00,80,8c,d7,b2,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,
00,1f,ea,fd,ad,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,de,ad,60,9b,e9,97,
c7,01,f4,01,00,00,01,02,00,00,10, ...

31 Click OK
32 Close regedit
33 Close the command prompt window and click on the 'Restart' button on
the window that gives you the list of options.
34 When your computer restarts, log in with the account named
'Administrator'. Use this emergency Administrator account to fix your
normal administrator account by using the user accounts control panel.

 

[Guest]

I did sorta the same thing, except I stupidly changed my administrator
account by creating a new group (without admin priv) and changed to that
group. Now I don't have an administrator account at all. How can I change it
back?

 

[Jimmy Brush]

I did sorta the same thing, except I stupidly changed my administrator
account by creating a new group (without admin priv) and changed to that
group. Now I don't have an administrator account at all. How can I change it
back?

Hello,

If you weren't using the account named "administrator", then there is a
hidden account on your computer in that name that you can use.

1) Try rebooting your computer in safe mode (keep pressing F5 as your
computer is starting up before you see the green progress bar on a black
string and select safe mode from the menu)

This may allow you to log in with the "Administrator" account.

If you can't log in to the "administrator" account from safe mode, you
can follow these steps from inside of your user account to enable it:

1 Download the following file and save it to your desktop:

http://www.jimmah.com/vista/downloads/enableadmin.exe.

2 Click on the start orb. Write down your username (the name listed
right below your picture on the start menu).
3 Place your Windows Installation DVD into your DVD drive
4 Restart your computer
5 When prompted, press a key on your keyboard to boot from the DVD
6 Select your language options and click Next
7 Select the option at the bottom to repair your computer
8 Select your Windows installation from the list. Make sure you notate
what drive letter it is installed on.
9 Select the last option from the list to open a Command Prompt
10 Type the drive letter that you notated from step 8, type a colon ),
and then press enter. For example, if your Windows installation was on
drive C, you would type

C:

11 Type the following command, and press enter:

cd users

12 Type cd, a space, your username that you wrote down in step 2, and
then press enter. For example, if your username is jimmy, you would type

cd jimmy

13 Type the following command, and press enter:

cd desktop

14 Type the following command, and press enter:

enableadmin

15 You should receive a message telling you to restart your computer. 16
Close the command prompt window and click on the 'Restart' button on the
window that gives you the list of options.
16 When your computer restarts, log in with the account named
'Administrator'. Use this emergency Administrator account to fix your
normal administrator account by using the user accounts control panel

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Ernie

If you changed the only administrator account to a standard user account,
you should be able to go to Safe Mode and use the built-in administrator
account.

Reboot the computer and when it first starts to boot, start tapping the F8
Key. You will eventually see a black screen with a menu. Use the Arrow Keys
to select Safe Mode and press Enter. It will take a few minutes to start
safe mode. When the login screen appears, you should see an account named
Administrator, there should not be a password associated with this account,
just select the account and press the Enter Key to log on.

Go into Control Panel / User Accounts. Select the Manage Another Account
option, on the next screen, select the Standard account that you want to
change. Click the "Change the account type" option. On the next screen,
select the Administrator account type and click the Change Account TYpe
Button.

Close everything and reboot the computer. You should now be able to logon
with your old administrator account.

 

[Guest]

Know I'm in the right pew, just hope this is the right church.
My problem is that in spite of disenabling the user account control Belarc
Advisor informs me that Administrator control is disabled. I still have to
use my administrator when I boot up and it "seems" to work because I have no
problems. In trying for a fix I found that there was/is an entirely
different entity known as supervisor control which requires a different
password. For the life of me I cannot recall ever having used this secret
password. How can I recover that one?

 

[Guest]

My problem is similar but has a different twist. I disableed the User Account
Control in the control panel and ran Belarc Advisor which showed me that my
Administrator Account was DISABLED. This, in spite of the fact thai I could
enter my password on startup and proceed. Something called supervisor control
now required a password which I dont know and dont remember setting up. I
hope all my other problems will be solved when I can iron this one out.

William Powell
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

William

You are probably referring to the Built-in Administrator account. This
account is hidden by default when Vista is first installed. This account is
used as a safety net in case all other admin accounts have been disabled, by
corruption or whatever reason. If all other admin accounts have been
disabled, you can boot to Safe Mode and the built-in admin account will
appear on the log-in screen.

This account has no password assigned to it, by default. The only way a
password can be assigned to this account is if you do it.

 

[Guest]

I don't know how ( and if) I did it, but somehow my user profile has been
disabled. I am being directed to 'See my system administrator', when I am
the system administrator and to my knowledge I am the only administrator of
my laptop. How can I reactivate my Windows XP Pro?? Do you have any
suggestions? Please help!

 

[Mark Bourne]

Someone here might be able to help you, so feel free to keep watching
this thread for a while, but you're more likely to get a helpful
response in one of the Windows XP newsgroups - this one is for Windows
Vista administration, which is very different from XP ;o)

You could try
microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin
or
microsoft.public.windowsxp.configuration_manage

Mark.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Amz

Could you give us the exact error message and what you are doing when it
occurs?

This sounds like a normal error message when you are starting a program that
is not aware of UAC. You may need to simply right click that program and
select the Run As Administrator option.

 

[Guest]

Thank you, Jimmy Brush! Saved my life.

G.

Ok...

Well, there is a way out of this situation, but it is very complex, and
requires you to have the Windows installation DVD.

(For pictures, please view these instructions on my website):

http://www.jimmah.com/vista/Administration/locked_out_of_admin.aspx

1 Click on the start orb. Write down your username (the name listed
right below your picture on the start menu).
2 Place your Windows Installation DVD into your DVD drive
3 Restart your computer
4 When prompted, press a key on your keyboard to boot from the DVD
5 Select your language options and click Next (See picture)
6 Select the option at the bottom to repair your computer (See picture)
7 Select your Windows installation from the list. Make sure you notate
what drive letter it is installed on.
8 Select the last option from the list to open a Command Prompt (See
picture)
9 Type the following command, and press enter:

regedit

10 On the left, click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
11 Click the File menu at the top, and then click Load Hive
12 Open "computer"
13 Double-click on the drive that Windows is installed on (you wrote
this drive letter down in step 7)
14 Double-click on the folder called Windows
15 Double-click on the folder called System32
16 Double-click on the folder called Config
17 Click on the file called SAM and click Open
18 Type "Target SAM" into the box and click OK
19 Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder by clicking on the triangle next
to it
20 Expand the Target SAM folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
21 Expand the SAM folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
22 Expand the Domains folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
23 Expand the Accounts folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
24 Expand the Users folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
25 Click on the folder named 000001F4
26 Double-click the item in the right called "F"

You are now presented with an editor. You will see two columns: a list
of letters and numbers grouped in pairs on the left, with a list of
symbols on the right. We will only be using the list of letters and
numbers on the left.

27 Find the spot in the left column that says "11".
28 Click to the immediate right of the 11, so that the flashing
insertion line is to the immediate right of 11
29 Press backspace to make the 11 disappear
30 Using the keyboard, type the number 10

This should change the information in the left column from

02,00,01,00,00,00,00,00,80,8c,d7,b2,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,
00,1f,ea,fd,ad,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,de,ad,60,9b,e9,97,
c7,01,f4,01,00,00,01,02,00,00,11, ...

TO:

02,00,01,00,00,00,00,00,80,8c,d7,b2,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,
00,1f,ea,fd,ad,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,de,ad,60,9b,e9,97,
c7,01,f4,01,00,00,01,02,00,00,10, ...

31 Click OK
32 Close regedit
33 Close the command prompt window and click on the 'Restart' button on
the window that gives you the list of options.
34 When your computer restarts, log in with the account named
'Administrator'. Use this emergency Administrator account to fix your
normal administrator account by using the user accounts control panel.

 

[Guest]

Hi Ronnie,
Have reviewed your posts and would appreciate some help in this post.
Vista Home Premium
Acer manufacture - Desktop
Problem: Cannot logon with either administrator at Windows boot or via safe
mode.
User changed admin password and now cannot login.
Acer have not supplied a restore CD (am chasing this up), so customer is
unable to use new PC.
Question: Is there a way to bypass boot menu or edit password file to reset
admin password, or any other option than restoring? I want to at least reset
password and then sort out issue with manufacturer in the coming week.
(note: I am a professional work works part time for a pc/electronics reseller)
Thanks in advance

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Tom

Without an installation disk, you are limited to third party soulutions to
recover from a forgotten password.

This link to a password recovery disk
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/, although a free program, can be a
daunting process for anyone who is not familiar with such things as burning
an ISO file as an image and creating it as a bootable CD.

There are a couple of commercial options. The program that I recommend is
the first one, it is very easy to create a recovery disk that you can use on
any Windows PC. These recovery programs usually cost about 30-40 USD.

A@PC: Windows Password Recovery Software. Reset Administrator Password. XP
VISTA 2003 2000 NT.:
http://www.password-changer.com/

Windows Password Recovery Key - Resets the Administrator account password:
http://tinyurl.com/2qr7oc

If you do support on a regular basis, it might be worth getting one of these
commercial programs.

 

[Guest]

Cheers Ronnie, exactly what I thought...but I was hoping

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Tom

Your welcome, glad this helped.

 

[mis256]

hi
so how do i get in with out my password? please help