Please help, no administrator access!

I was led to believe that if you remove your user account from the
Administrators group UAC would prompt you when Administrator rights were
needed and you could supply the Administrator password to do what you like.
In XP when you move your user account out of the Administrators group (I ran
as a Power User in XP) it would automatically activate the built-in
Administrator account. In Vista this does not seem to occur and so when I
removed my account from the Administrators group the only account remaining
is the still-disabled Administrator account. With no admin rights I can't
add myself back to that group, I can't enable the Administrator account,
etc.
When I try to do something that requires admin rights UAC gives me a dialog
to enter the password for an Administrator but that dialog is sometimes
blank and sometimes contains my regular user account (I've not determined a
pattern yet). When it does contain my regular user account if I enter my
password it goes away as if it accepted it but the action does NOT execute
with administrator rights.
I'm at a loss of what to do at this point., any help would be greatly
appreciated.

Nicholas Hanson wrote:

> I was led to believe that if you remove your user account from the
> Administrators group UAC would prompt you when Administrator rights were
> needed and you could supply the Administrator password to do what you
> like. In XP when you move your user account out of the Administrators
> group (I ran as a Power User in XP) it would automatically activate the
> built-in
> Administrator account. In Vista this does not seem to occur and so when I
> removed my account from the Administrators group the only account
> remaining
> is the still-disabled Administrator account. With no admin rights I can't
> add myself back to that group, I can't enable the Administrator account,
> etc.
> When I try to do something that requires admin rights UAC gives me a
> dialog to enter the password for an Administrator but that dialog is
> sometimes blank and sometimes contains my regular user account (I've not
> determined a
> pattern yet). When it does contain my regular user account if I enter my
> password it goes away as if it accepted it but the action does NOT execute
> with administrator rights.
> I'm at a loss of what to do at this point., any help would be greatly
> appreciated.

As you have discovered, the built-in Administrator account is disabled by
default in Vista. When you get out of this situation, create a Standard
user for your daily work and at least one extra administrator user - call
it CompAdmin or Tech or the like - for elevation and emergencies. In the
meantime, you can try MVP Jimmy Brush's method of recovery.

Tutorial and fix -
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/Administ..._of_admin.aspx

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

[Nick Thomas]

Has anyone else ran into this problem where as they are running windows Vista and they have lost their Administator user... And can not enable the defualt admin user becasue they arent an admin to do so...? I think I might know who to solve this issue.

Rebooting to safe mode solved it for me. In safe mode the Administrator
option was enabled so it allowed me to log in and create and new account
with admin rights that I can use when necessary.

"Nick Thomas" <Nick.Thomas.3htisl@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com> wrote in
message news:Nick.Thomas.3htisl@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com...
>
> Has anyone else ran into this problem where as they are running windows
> Vista and they have lost their Administator user... And can not enable
> the defualt admin user becasue they arent an admin to do so...? I think
> I might know who to solve this issue.
>
>
> --
> Nick Thomas
> Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com
>

Vista was designed to enable the full token administrator account
and make it available in safe mode whenever the last of the other
administrator accounts is removed or demoted.

Unfortunately, it is still possible for a user to inadvertantly shift the
administrator privilege to the ASP.NET account and remove or
demote all the others - leaving them with an administrator account
they can't log into.

Locked your keys in the car again eh?

No doubt there are "slim jim" programs out there - or at least a
'coathanger' program bent just right. )

....or as Malke would be likely (and rightly) to suggest - a spare set
of keys in the form of another administrator account just in case.

"Nicholas Hanson" <da_asmodai@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:245CE907-3ECF-46AC-825F-8E6BA3F7BAB6@microsoft.com...
> Rebooting to safe mode solved it for me. In safe mode the Administrator
> option was enabled so it allowed me to log in and create and new account
> with admin rights that I can use when necessary.
>
> "Nick Thomas" <Nick.Thomas.3htisl@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com> wrote in
> message news:Nick.Thomas.3htisl@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com...
>>
>> Has anyone else ran into this problem where as they are running windows
>> Vista and they have lost their Administator user... And can not enable
>> the defualt admin user becasue they arent an admin to do so...? I think
>> I might know who to solve this issue.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Nick Thomas
>> Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com
>>
>

[Nick Thomas]

Acually it took me awhile to figure it out what i had no access to the hidden admin account i had to admin to activate it, and the safe mode didnt work. heres what i did

1. put in the Vista Upgrade Disk
2. at the istall now screen i clicked repair computer
3. I pressed cancel in the recovery/repair tool
4. went to advanced options
5. clicked command prompt
6. changed from X to C:\
7. then Cd Windows\system32

and then typed in the followeing command
ren osk.exe osk.bak
ren cmd.exe osk.exe

then restarted the computer

at the welcome screen i click the ease of access button on the bottom of the screen and used the on screen keyboard... which now should be the command prompt. from there i typed in the command net user administator /active:yes and it created the admin file where i could log back in and change my user back to an admin... also after you make your account admin i would go back and deactivate the command prompt from being on the keyboard by typing in

ren osk.bak osk.exe
ren osk.exe cmd.exe

Quote:

Originally Posted by FromTheRafters

Vista was designed to enable the full token administrator account
and make it available in safe mode whenever the last of the other
administrator accounts is removed or demoted.

Unfortunately, it is still possible for a user to inadvertantly shift the
administrator privilege to the ASP.NET account and remove or
demote all the others - leaving them with an administrator account
they can't log into.

Locked your keys in the car again eh?

No doubt there are "slim jim" programs out there - or at least a
'coathanger' program bent just right. )

....or as Malke would be likely (and rightly) to suggest - a spare set
of keys in the form of another administrator account just in case.

"Nicholas Hanson" <da_asmodai@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:245CE907-3ECF-46AC-825F-8E6BA3F7BAB6@microsoft.com...
> Rebooting to safe mode solved it for me. In safe mode the Administrator
> option was enabled so it allowed me to log in and create and new account
> with admin rights that I can use when necessary.
>
> "Nick Thomas" <Nick.Thomas.3htisl@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com> wrote in
> message news:Nick.Thomas.3htisl@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com...
>>
>> Has anyone else ran into this problem where as they are running windows
>> Vista and they have lost their Administator user... And can not enable
>> the defualt admin user becasue they arent an admin to do so...? I think
>> I might know who to solve this issue.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Nick Thomas
>> Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com
>>
>

Another similar method uses utilman.exe in the same manner.
At the login screen the Windows key + U brings up the shell.

"Nick Thomas" <Nick.Thomas.3hz5ko@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com> wrote in
message news:Nick.Thomas.3hz5ko@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com...
>
> Acually it took me awhile to figure it out what i had no access to the
> hidden admin account i had to admin to activate it, and the safe mode
> didnt work. heres what i did
>
> 1. put in the Vista Upgrade Disk
> 2. at the istall now screen i clicked repair computer
> 3. I pressed cancel in the recovery/repair tool
> 4. went to advanced options
> 5. clicked command prompt
> 6. changed from X to C:\
> 7. then Cd Windows\system32
>
> and then typed in the followeing command
> ren osk.exe osk.bak
> ren cmd.exe osk.exe
>
> then restarted the computer
>
> at the welcome screen i click the ease of access button on the bottom
> of the screen and used the on screen keyboard... which now should be the
> command prompt. from there i typed in the command net user administator
> /active:yes and it created the admin file where i could log back in and
> change my user back to an admin... also after you make your account
> admin i would go back and deactivate the command prompt from being on
> the keyboard by typing in
>
> ren osk.bak osk.exe
> ren osk.exe cmd.exe
>
> FromTheRafters;1054395 Wrote:
>> Vista was designed to enable the full token administrator account
>> and make it available in safe mode whenever the last of the other
>> administrator accounts is removed or demoted.
>>
>> Unfortunately, it is still possible for a user to inadvertantly shift
>> the
>> administrator privilege to the ASP.NET account and remove or
>> demote all the others - leaving them with an administrator account
>> they can't log into.
>>
>> Locked your keys in the car again eh?
>>
>> No doubt there are "slim jim" programs out there - or at least a
>> 'coathanger' program bent just right. )
>>
>> ....or as Malke would be likely (and rightly) to suggest - a spare set
>> of keys in the form of another administrator account just in case.
>>
>> "Nicholas Hanson" <da_asmodai@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:245CE907-3ECF-46AC-825F-8E6BA3F7BAB6@microsoft.com...
>> > Rebooting to safe mode solved it for me. In safe mode the
>> Administrator
>> > option was enabled so it allowed me to log in and create and new
>> account
>> > with admin rights that I can use when necessary.
>> >
>> > "Nick Thomas" <Nick.Thomas.3htisl@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com> wrote
>> in
>> > message news:Nick.Thomas.3htisl@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com...
>> >>
>> >> Has anyone else ran into this problem where as they are running
>> windows
>> >> Vista and they have lost their Administator user... And can not
>> enable
>> >> the defualt admin user becasue they arent an admin to do so...? I
>> think
>> >> I might know who to solve this issue.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> Nick Thomas
>> >> Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com
>> >>
>> >
>
>
> --
> Nick Thomas
> Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com
>