Can't install printer/PDF creator - No privileges

Please help me if you can. I can't access the local security settings without locking up the computer. I am logged in as the only account that shows up, and that has administrator privileges. But I can't install a local printer (trying to install a free PDF creator, which uses a virtual printer) because that option is greyed out. All the downloads tell me to use an administrator account, but I already am in one! I also cannot access the date/time feature - that too tells me I do not have the proper privilege level to change the system time. I have tried several fixes for this problem but I need to start over. Why can't I act as an administrator when I am one? Do I need to do something with folder sharing, and how do I do that? Should I delete all other accounts (they don't show up except in safe mode, and then it's only one)? Please help. .

Hello Juliane, Seems like we are where we left off . What accounts are on your system? The account that shows up in safe mode should be the "Administrator" account. You do not want to attempt deleting this account (not sure if it's even possible). I'm assuming you also have another account with administrative privileges and that is the account that is not working correctly. What you can do is try to create a new account with administrative privileges and see if this account's privileges work on the system. Please let me know how it goes. Regards, Ax

Well, we're actually in a worse place! Today I had to do a hard shut-down because the system hung…when I re-booted, I got the Welcome screen and "click on your user account" but there aren't any user accounts there! When I bring up the classic logon screen, which usually has Administrator, the other administrator account was listed. So I deleted that and put in Administrator and tried my password (this actually does have a password set by someone else). It didn't work. Then I tried no password, and that didn't work. So I tried the other account - no luck, no way. Tried to start in safe mode. Same welcome screen, no users to click on. I couldn't find any other option, so I did a re-install from the CD-ROM. I can access the recovery console but I have no idea what to do in there. Anyway, the re-install went OK, although there was a COM+ error at some point. I didn't copy that text but should have. So XP goes through all its stuff and then wants me to create a new account. I put in a new name, and the old desktop (rearranged but there) comes up. So far, so good, right? I right away went into Control Panel, User Accounts, to see if I could get back into the old account. NO ACCOUNT shown but guest! What the heck? I went into Admin tools to check out the User and Groups settings - the User folder is EMPTY!! Not even an admin listed. This is really weird. There are a couple of groups but no admin. at all. Well, stupid me, I didn't create any more accounts and just tried to log off, hoping for the computer to give me the option of logging on as the old account or the administrator. Nope. Now I am back to square one. The new account name I created when I did the re-install/repair cannot be logged on without a password, nor can I get any of the other accounts back. The error I get is "The local policy of this system does not permit you to logon interactively." I have a laptop and could get these 2 computers networked if I go out and get a router - that's probably what I should do, eh? THEN could I re-set and re-install whatever file is corrupted? In the time that's passed since we talked last, I have just put the computer into standby as often as possible, but it has been shut down normally and started up just fine. It was just today when it went haywire again. Thanks for your fast response. I hate Windows.

Sorry Juliane, I've been away from the online world for a little while, taking care of some other things. You could try restoring the registry, but I'm all out of new ideas. Your final option is to get your files off the computer, format it, and then reinstall Windows. Unless you have a system recovery disk, I don't know how else you can solve the issue. I see that dough is helping you with your other thread, so maybe we can both learn something from it. Regards, Ax