Vista - No access to Administrator account following sysprep

Hi

I have spent several hours setting up a Vista machine. On it I had the Adminstrator account enabled and a standard user account. I took a backup, using the standard Vista backup, of the machine prior to sysprep. I also took a ghost image once the machine had syspreped and shut down.

On reboot it appears the Administrator account has disabled itself which I realise is the default state for the account. I therefore have no admin account live on this machine.

Does anyone know if there is a way to re enable this account if there is no other administrator account active, or could I use the MS backup that I took prior to disabling to restore it back to it's pre sysprep state.

Any help would be gratefully received. I'd really like to avoid going through the whole process of rebuilding the machine.

Thanks

Andy

Hmmm, the User account you setup during install is an Admin Account-did you use the Hidden Admin account to reduce the priviledge to standard User?
This thread is similiar to your issue:User Account question on new install

Further troubleshooting methods-
Administrator Account
Safe Mode
System Restore - How to

note- Left Image is Normal User Admin Account. Image on right shows the Hidden Admin Acct Activated.

In the past, in w2k and xp I've always just had the Administrator account which I set a password on and keep enabled, and a standard user account for day to day use.

On the original install of Vista I set up the initial administrator account and from that enabled the hidden Administrator account. I then downgraded the first administrator account to a standard user account.

As a result I was left with the hidden Administrator account enabled and running (with a password on it) and a standard user account.

I think what has happened is that the Administrator account had hidden itself and disabled itself following sysprep.

Is there a way to use the backup I did prior to the sysprep which is on an external hard disk. Can I use the original Vista disk to get to use this to rewrite the install.

I don't have access to the machine at the moment or I'd try myself.

The Vista User Admin account runs by default as a standard User, and is elevated for Admin tasks through UAC prompts. The Built in Admin is to bypass the UAC-with full Admin Privledges.

You are gonna have to reinstall/repair if possible but now you have only standard User access to Vista. Try a system restore to before you disabled the User Admin account Privledges by booting into your Vista disk Advanced Recovery.

System Recovery Options

if you click on cmd & then click on run as admin, what happens, does it give you any account name for which a password is required.

Ok

I've restored it from the backup to it's state prior to sysprep using the advanced restore feature on the Vista disk. Worked really well. I won't be syspreping with only the hidden Admin account enabled in future.

Thanks for your help.

Andy

You can also build a BartPE disk with SALA's Password Renew and add an admin account with ease to both Vista and XP systems. It is very simple, fast and clean, without having to do any repairs or reloading, once you build the BartPE, and that is fairly easy to accomplish.

Tepid

Thanks. That's useful information. I'll try that out.