Completely lost administration abilities

Did what I usually do on XP: created dummy user w/admin, drop real user to
limited, hide dummy via registry. On XP, this gives "Administrator" and real
user login icons on the login screen - nice and tidy. Not Vista. Still only
shows lowly real user.

Now, I have no way to undo it. Login only shows real user, no admin.
Ctrl-Alt-Del no longer gives place to type in hidden user name, all admin
operations ask for a password but nowhere to type it. No luck via safe mode.
From recovery panel, regedit shows nothing I did, so can't unhide dummy
account that has admin.

Help! How can I (1) edit the registry w/o admin privs, or (2) add another
user or activate administrator account w/o admin privs? Machine is not part
of a domain.

Hi,
Can you, in Safe Mode, get to Control panel> Administrative tools> Computer
management> Local users and groups> Users ? If you can access Users, try
right-click> Properties> uncheck "Account is disabled" for admin accounts.

Hope this helps,
Don
[MS MVP- IE]

"SDLSAGINAW" <SDLSAGINAW@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FD9D78F5-4C0A-4016-A220-BE23AF0BA0E9@microsoft.com...
> Did what I usually do on XP: created dummy user w/admin, drop real user to
> limited, hide dummy via registry. On XP, this gives "Administrator" and
real
> user login icons on the login screen - nice and tidy. Not Vista. Still
only
> shows lowly real user.
>
> Now, I have no way to undo it. Login only shows real user, no admin.
> Ctrl-Alt-Del no longer gives place to type in hidden user name, all admin
> operations ask for a password but nowhere to type it. No luck via safe
mode.
> From recovery panel, regedit shows nothing I did, so can't unhide dummy
> account that has admin.
>
> Help! How can I (1) edit the registry w/o admin privs, or (2) add another
> user or activate administrator account w/o admin privs? Machine is not
part
> of a domain.

Safe mode wouldn't give me any extra rights either, all priviledged
operations asked for admin password, but nowhere to type it in.

Ended up doing a system restore from recovery environment to a time before I
did the changes, so at least the system is back to usable again.

Anyway, I had forgotten that Vista never enabled the administrator account
before I did this 'trick' so I really hosed myself.

Turns out the trick wasn't needed anyway, Vista is happy to show
administrator login whenever enabled.

XP won't show the administrator login if another non-hidden user has admin
privs, and user maintenance won't let you drop the last real login to a
limited user so you can get the real administrator login to show. Catch-22,
thus the 'trick'.

"Don Varnau" wrote:

> Hi,
> Can you, in Safe Mode, get to Control panel> Administrative tools> Computer
> management> Local users and groups> Users ? If you can access Users, try
> right-click> Properties> uncheck "Account is disabled" for admin accounts.
>
> Hope this helps,
> Don
> [MS MVP- IE]
>
> "SDLSAGINAW" <SDLSAGINAW@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:FD9D78F5-4C0A-4016-A220-BE23AF0BA0E9@microsoft.com...
> > Did what I usually do on XP: created dummy user w/admin, drop real user to
> > limited, hide dummy via registry. On XP, this gives "Administrator" and
> real
> > user login icons on the login screen - nice and tidy. Not Vista. Still
> only
> > shows lowly real user.
> >
> > Now, I have no way to undo it. Login only shows real user, no admin.
> > Ctrl-Alt-Del no longer gives place to type in hidden user name, all admin
> > operations ask for a password but nowhere to type it. No luck via safe
> mode.
> > From recovery panel, regedit shows nothing I did, so can't unhide dummy
> > account that has admin.
> >
> > Help! How can I (1) edit the registry w/o admin privs, or (2) add another
> > user or activate administrator account w/o admin privs? Machine is not
> part
> > of a domain.
>
>

Glad you got it resolved. Thanks for the report.

Don

"SDLSAGINAW" <SDLSAGINAW@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9DDE47D6-9E1A-4704-B42C-DA156143D002@microsoft.com...
> Safe mode wouldn't give me any extra rights either, all priviledged
> operations asked for admin password, but nowhere to type it in.
>
> Ended up doing a system restore from recovery environment to a time before
I
> did the changes, so at least the system is back to usable again.
>
> Anyway, I had forgotten that Vista never enabled the administrator account
> before I did this 'trick' so I really hosed myself.
>
> Turns out the trick wasn't needed anyway, Vista is happy to show
> administrator login whenever enabled.
>
> XP won't show the administrator login if another non-hidden user has admin
> privs, and user maintenance won't let you drop the last real login to a
> limited user so you can get the real administrator login to show.
Catch-22,
> thus the 'trick'.

> "Don Varnau" wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> > Can you, in Safe Mode, get to Control panel> Administrative tools>
Computer
> > management> Local users and groups> Users ? If you can access Users, try
> > right-click> Properties> uncheck "Account is disabled" for admin
accounts.
> >

> > "SDLSAGINAW" <SDLSAGINAW@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:FD9D78F5-4C0A-4016-A220-BE23AF0BA0E9@microsoft.com...
> > > Did what I usually do on XP: created dummy user w/admin, drop real
user to
> > > limited, hide dummy via registry. On XP, this gives "Administrator"
and
> > real
> > > user login icons on the login screen - nice and tidy. Not Vista.
Still
> > only
> > > shows lowly real user.
> > >
> > > Now, I have no way to undo it. Login only shows real user, no admin.
> > > Ctrl-Alt-Del no longer gives place to type in hidden user name, all
admin
> > > operations ask for a password but nowhere to type it. No luck via
safe
> > mode.
> > > From recovery panel, regedit shows nothing I did, so can't unhide
dummy
> > > account that has admin.
> > >
> > > Help! How can I (1) edit the registry w/o admin privs, or (2) add
another
> > > user or activate administrator account w/o admin privs? Machine is
not
> > part of a domain.