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Administator Account Restoration

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by briancatt 3 views

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I have fallen into a Windows trap I think.

To try to get network access to work I changed the name of the administrator account to another name to lose a network privileges problem.

It seems I actually needed to re create the Guest account which had been deleted.

I now seem to need to change the Adinistrator account back to administrator to create the Guest account BUT, it won't let me.

It says there is already an Administrator account but its not visible, only the one renamed Admistrator account.

My renamed account still has its administrator status.

I hope this is clear, the logic is totally MS so completely incomprehensible to me.

I hope i have been clear enough for a good reference to a solution.

What can I do please?

Thanks,

Brian

PS Not good for a consultant ?! ;-)

6 replies

by thumbsup2

If this is XP Pro, you can press Ctrl+Alt+Del two times at the logon screen to get to THE Administrator account. If this is XP Home, you must boot up in Safe Mode to get to it. If this is Vista, the procedure might be different.

So, which Windows?

by briancatt

Actually I can check out the account Guest in the User section of the Computer setting in the administration area of Control Panel under my renamed Admin account. Guest is listed, but has no suporting files, all attempts to change it say file not found.

by tlittle88

Try
Run regedit
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList in the Registry Editor.
Double-click the Administrator key in the right pane.
If the Administrator key doesn?t exist, right-click on the above tree in the pane, choose New, DWORD Value, name it Administrator and press .
Type 1 in the ?Value data? box, and press .
Then restart the machine and on the welcome page do ctrl+alt+del twice and type in the administrators name and password.

Hope this helps

by briancatt

OK. In the admin tools/ Computer Management/ Users utility I changed the name of the Administrator account back to Administrator, from me. I can log into that Admin account using the trick cntrl+alt+del x2.

But however I log into the system when I look at the Regedit file as you kindly suggested there is NO overtly named Administrator key and NO Guest key.

1. Even though I have an admin account now should I still create a Registry key as you described?

2. Can I creat a Guest key as well, as above or differently (like VALUE, etc)?

Thanks,

BRian Catt

FYI: This all started because of a network privileges issue. When I tried to access a printer on the problem PC remotely I was presented with a greyed Guest account asking for a password, which did not work - then it transpired there was no guest account on the remote PC, the one I'm trying to fix now - After an XP upgrade from Win 2000. I have another backup OS on separate partition on the p[roblem computer which does support the same printer remotely without any special effort or login. I then tried creating the Brian Catt renamed admin account on the problem PC OS as that was the name I use on the other PC I was trying to log in from and "they" said that should work. It didn't. The PC I was trying to access the ;roblem one from has Brian Catt named as Admin and a Guest account. Both fine. confused yet? You will be :-)

I just realised I should look at the registry on my good PC, with my enter and mouse hand tied down, to see what's in there on a proper set up.

CAVEAT EMPTOR; I used to write code but have been a mac user for 20 years, protected from this mess.

Reg Edit to me is Open Heart or Brain surgery - an unnatural act with computers for someone used to stuff that's tightly integrated and JUST WORKS).

by tlittle88

So do you have the access to the administrators account now?

And if you go to run and type lusrmgr.msc
You can look through all the account on the computers. And it might be worth leaving the administrators account dormant and creating a new account with administrators privileges

I only ever use regedit as a last resort I tend to find alternative routes to fixing computer because you can seriously mess up a computer by messing around in the regedit. But it sounded like you were really stuck.

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