New laptop windows 7. I set up 1 admin acct and 2 standard user accounts for kids. Parental controls were set on both. Microsoft tech via phone 800# showed me how to hide admin account in winlog. Accomplished.
Account was hidden so kids wouldn't know I check their history.
Tried to log on to download antivirus program and I can't. The admin account isn't on the welcome screen.
Called 800# back. They tried to get remote access to computer through their website to fix. Standard user accounts would not allow access to them. Regedit wouldn't open either for whatever they were attempting.
How can I access admin acct? I assumed when they told how to hide it there was a way to get back in otherwise what's the point in this security feature? I asked them via phone very upset and they said parents will hide it for various reasons….ok get that. If Microsoft has this feature…there has to be a way to get in. Help! Please. We do not want to reset as files and folders antivirus etc has already been set up. Help help!
The administrator account by default does not appear on the welcome screen.
The built-in administrator account is disabled by default, but is enabled in safe mode, allowing you to log into it and make changes. Unless you have hidden the built-in account in addition to whatever account you set up (?)
Administrator account can be activated through User Account Control, through the Command Prompt. or in safe mode.
1.Go to your Start menu and in Accessories list, open Command Prompt by right-clicking on its icon and choosing Run as Administrator.
2. When the Command Prompt window appears, enter the command net user administrator /active:yes
3. When you have finished, log out from your current account.
4. The administrator account should now be present on your log-in screen.
5. to hide the Admin. account again, in command prompt enter net user administrator /active:no
PS edit:
In case of further admin. issues that are not resolved by the above, what version of W7 is installed on your PC?
Changing the password isn't an issue, I know the password to the admin acct I set up. I just can't log into it because it's hidden. I need to find a way to get to it and unhide it. The standard user accts won't let me. It says only the administrator can do this….or you have to be signed in as the administrator. I'm locked out.
If that doesn't work, see here: How to Change the User Account Password if Unable to Login to Windows[/
Changing the password isn't an issue, I know the password to the admin acct I set up. I just can't log into it because it's hidden. I need to find a way to get to it and unhide it. The standard user accts won't let me. It says only the administrator can do this....or you have to be signed in as the administrator. I'm locked out.
The administrator account by default does not appear on the welcome screen.
The built-in administrator account is disabled by default, but is enabled in safe mode, allowing you to log into it and make changes. Unless you have hidden the built-in account in addition to whatever account you set up (?)
Administrator account can be activated through User Account Control, through the Command Prompt. or in safe mode.
1.Go to your Start menu and in Accessories list, open Command Prompt by right-clicking on its icon and choosing Run as Administrator.
2. When the Command Prompt window appears, enter the command net user administrator /active:yes
3. When you have finished, log out from your current account.
4. The administrator account should now be present on your log-in screen.
5. to hide the Admin. account again, in command prompt enter net user administrator /active:no
PS edit:
In case of further admin. issues that are not resolved by the above, what version of W7 is installed on your PC?
Windows 7 home premium. I tried these steps. Thank you! But when I tried to enter command prompt it said you need to be logged in as administrator to make these changes. Log out and log in as admin. still can't access Admin acct. I tried to get into regedit to unhide acct and it won't let me. Shouldn't Microsoft have a key or code or something to have the ability to access a hidden acct from login screen? Otherwise why have this option to hide accts? Or the admin acct more specifically. I have the password so obviously it's not breaching a security…..
Microsoft tech via phone 800# showed me how to hide admin account in winlog. Accomplished.
What were you told to actually do?
It sounds like you may have made some changes in the registry (which a Microsoft Tech. should never have had you messing with in the first place). Perhaps incorrect changes due to misinterpreted directions, as the normal way to make the sort of changes you wished would have been through the group policy editor.
The reason I asked about what W7 version your PC is running is because GPE only exists in W7 Pro. and above versions of W7.
Try this and see: Start / Run / type in Gpedit.msc and press Enter. GPE should not come up in Home Premium.
For the life of me, I can't work out what you did or how (?).
Without admin. privileges, you can't access Safe Mode, do a Startup Repair through a recovery environment as suggested by Ztrucker, or even a Factory Restore …anything really.
Worst case scenario will be ending up having to download and create a W7 Home Premium disk and re-install W7.
I hope it doesn't come to that, so it's important to know exactly what you did to end up where you are now.
The only steps they had me do was go into regedit through start menu and go to winlog special users and add account name and enter 0 to hide and they said if I ever needed to unhide- to go back in and change to 1.
I followed these steps and it hid my account. But when I tried your directions to go into command prompt it wouldn't let me do anything. (to unhide) admin acct. when I set up the admin acct originally that was done in control panel:add user acct and I set the acct type as admin. the kids accts were set as standard users.
When I sign in under their accts anything I try to do says you need to be signed in as administrator to make changes. Likewise in safe mode. When I log in under safe mode it still prompts me for a password for either of the two standard accts.
I was looking at other programs that supposedly bypass windows passwords and let you in with admin privileges. One being konboot? Do you know anything about that program? And some other program called ophcrack/ but what I read about that is it simply cracks passwords which I don't need since I know my password. I just need to sign in with admin privileges so I can go back into the same place the techs sent me to unhide it- or find a way to get my account to be visible to sign in.
Isn't it strange that there isn't a command that would prompt hidden accts to show up to sign in? I still don't understand why Microsoft would have this option to hide an admin acct without the ability to get to it. What is the purpose?
Is there a way to add another acct that gives admin privileges just so I can get in to unhide the original one?
I suppose that would be hacking into my own system. Hence this konboot prgrm that I don't really know anything about.
The only steps they had me do was go into regedit through start menu and go to winlog special users and add account name and enter 0 to hide and they said if I ever needed to unhide- to go back in and change to 1.
I wonder what the tech. was thinking advising these changes, especially without a reg. backup? Have you tried contacting them again and asking them: "How am I supposed to get back into regedit without admin privileges?"
The registry should never be altered without backing it up first, just in case it needs to be restored to original. A reg. backup with ERUNT before any changes were made, could have been used to restore the reg., which would have been a quick and easy fix for this problem. My advice (regardless of what you read on the web) is to never alter the reg. or use a reg. cleaner, optimizer, fixer etc. they won't improve your PCs performance or fix anything. The reverse is often the case.
Once (and if) open, type in cd C:\Windows\ and press enter. Now type in regedit this launches regedit (supposedly) with admin. rights. Now change the registry back to the way it was, or this cmd command might now work net user administrator /active:no
If no joy, it looks like a re-instrall of W7 after saving all personal Documents, Photo and Music etc to disk or USB storage first.
PS edit:
Kon-boot is only a password recovery tool and will not give you admin. rights.
I'll mention this one last ti,e:
If you follow the steps in the link I gave you, it tells you how to activate the hidden Administrator account.\ so you can then login to it. From there you can do anything you need to do.
Lee, he did not say he tried it which is why I keep mentioning it. All he said was he does not want to change the password, and that's fine but the link I provided shows you how to activate the hidden administrator account. Does not need to change any password.
As far as I can tell, that has not been tried.
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