Many people familiar with prior versions of Windows are curious what happened to the built-in Administrator account that was always created by default. Does this account still exist, and how can you access it?

The account is created in Windows 10, 8, 7, or Vista, but since it’s not enabled you can’t use it. If you are troubleshooting something that needs to run as administrator, you can enable it with a simple command.

Warning: The built-in Administrator account has a lot more privileges than a regular administrator account—privileges that can easily get you into trouble if you use it regularly. We recommend only enabling the built-in Administrator account if you are certain you need it to troubleshoot a specific problem and then disabling it when you are done. If you’re unsure whether you need it, you probably shouldn’t use it at all.

Dec 31, 2009  In Windows 7 as well as Vista we need Run as administrator for what ever admin tasks you perfrom in the OS. In the first senario when you click on setup by default it would launch as administrator. After that when you open the program it won't launch as administrator unless we right click and run as administrator (or) Right click on the icon go to Compatibility Tab there check on Run the. May 07, 2012  Update (September 2017): We turned this question into an article on How to Obtain Admin Privileges on Windows How to Get Admin Rights on Windows How to Get Admin Rights on Windows Do you need to get administrator privileges on your PC? We show you what's restricting your admin rights and how to recover control over Windows. I have only one user listed on my computer. Feb 02, 2010  No administrator privileges on Windows 7 Hi, I just bought a new Toshiba laptop today, and set it up. Everything seemed to go smoothly, until I tried to delete the one of the silly desktop shortcuts that was preinstalled by Toshiba. Your account and inbuilt administrator account is there, no password for that administrator account.just.

Enable Built-in Administrator Account in Windows

First you’ll need to open a command prompt in administrator mode by right-clicking and choosing “Run as administrator” (or use the Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcut from the search box).

Feb 27, 2019  How do I know if I have Windows administrator rights? Follow the steps below for the version of Windows on your computer. Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10. The easiest way to check if your user account has admin rights on the computer is by accessing the User Accounts in Windows. Jul 03, 2017  Enable the (Hidden) Administrator Account on Windows 7, 8, or 10 Lowell Heddings @lowellheddings Updated July 3, 2017, 12:05pm EDT Many people familiar with prior versions of Windows are curious what happened to the built-in Administrator.

Note that this works the same in all versions of Windows. Just search for cmd and then right-click on the command prompt icon in the Start menu or Start screen.

How To Get Administrator Privileges

If you are in Windows 8.x or 10 you can right-click on the Start button and choose to open a command prompt that way.

Now type the following command:

net user administrator /active:yes

Dolby sound software. You should see a message that the command completed successfully. Log out, and you’ll now see the Administrator account as a choice. (Note that this screenshot is from Vista, but this works on Windows 7 and Windows 8 and Windows 10)

You’ll note that there’s no password for this account, so if you want to leave it enabled you should change the password.

Disable Built-in Administrator Account

Make sure you are logged on as your regular user account, and then open an administrator mode command prompt as above. Type the following command:

net user administrator /active:no

The administrator account will now be disabled, and shouldn’t show up on the login screen anymore.

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Since the last month, I have come around many users who have lost administrator rights on their Windows 10/8/7 PCs, and thus they were not able to manipulate their system or make changes to it. One common thing I found regarding the issue is that the users who have lost their administrator rights have only a single account on their system, which was, of course, the administrator account. As a result of losing the admin rights, you may have issues in using Windows Apps, making new or modifying Windows configuration settings in Control Panel, using Snap-ins and several other problems on your system.

It thus becomes imperative for us to get the administrator privileges back anyhow if we want to run the system without road-blocks. But how do you get back these privileges since for every operation you have to carry out, requires the administrative rights itself, which we have lost, unfortunately? While performing a Refresh or Reset will fix the problem, you may want to try out our suggestion first and see if it helps you.

Lost Administrator Rights in Windows

1.Press WinKey + Q, type user accounts, and click on the result.

Then select your User Account > Click Manage another account.

In the following window, click Add a user account option.

2. Now we have to create a local account user. So after clicking Add an account, click Sign in without a Microsoft account (Not recommended), then click Local account. Fill the details on the screen so appeared for adding a local account. Click Finish when done.

3. Press Windows Key + Q and type cmd, for the search results, click Command Prompt. Type the following the command and hit Enter key:

4. The previous step will result in your system to boot into Safe Mode. After getting into Safe Mode, press Windows Key + Q, type user accounts, and pick the same from results so appear. You would have now two accounts on your system; first your issued admin account and second the local account which you’ve created in step 2. Select the local account.

Now click Change the account type link in the following window:

Moving on, change the account status from StandardtoAdministrator. Click Change Account Type.

In this way, the new local account we’ve created has been changed to Administrator. Now you can restart your machine and log in to this account with administrator rights. Since you have administrative privileges now; so you can backup your documents from the old administrator account.

Windows 7 Administrator Privileges Not Working

Finally, delete the old admin account and switch to Microsoft account to synchronize your settings with a new administrative account. Your system will now act normally with full admin rights in your hand.

Post updated on: 2nd July 2014.

Additional thoughts by Anand Khanse, Admin:

  1. Run your antivirus software first. Malware is known to sometimes block admin privileges.
  2. Try using Clean Boot. If this makes the problem go away, see if you can identify the culprit.
  3. If it does not help, you could boot into Recovery using Windows DVD or the Recovery partition and run System Restore to restore your computer to a prior point.
  4. In the case of domain computers, check with your system administrator, if has applied any new restrictions.
  5. This policy setting can be used by Domain Administrators to ensure that only select authorized users are allowed to become members of groups like, say, the Administrators group : Computer Configuration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Restricted Groups
  6. See if you are able to activate the hidden super administrator account. Just in case you are able to, great – it will help you move forward. This is pretty useful if you find that you have locked yourself out your main account by accident and you want a back door entry.

Vasudev G, adds:

You can also try to use the iCacls command and see if it helps. This command-line utility that can be used to modify security descriptors and NTFS file system permissions.

Press Shift key and the Power button to restart your Windows PC. You will boot Advanced Menu options. Here click > Troubleshooting > Command prompt. In the CMD windowwhich opens, type the following command to reset permissions.

If nothing helps, then you may want to consider a System Restore or Refresh or Reset option.

Hope something helps you.

Windows 7 Get Administrator Privileges

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Windows 7 Force Administrator Privileges

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