Vista - Administrator Account

Hi, my problems started last week when I let someone on my computer(never again!) which runs vista home premium 32bit, and he managed to foul up my administrative privileges. He created an administrator account for himself, which he gave me access to as well as my own admin account. I am blocked from accessing my hard drives, and the system denies access to important programs like system restore and UAC control!

When I try to run CMD as administrator an error message comes up - 'incorrect parameter.' I can run cmd normally, but of course you get a system 5 error if you try to active the built in admin account.

I tried taking ownership of system restore the changes by typing

TAKEOWN/F C:\Windows\System32\rstrui.exe

The response is ERROR: Access is denied

I tried adding the /A at the end and the reply was:

The current logged on user does not have administrative privileges

Any help will be much appreciated, especially as even regedit does not open (parameter is incorrect)

Hi Benzo,

Welcome to Vista Forums.

Are you able to do all of this from the administrator account he created?

The UAC password may now be the one for the administrator account he created.

If it works from his account, then you might create a new administrator account for yourself while logged onto his account to see if it will work for you. If so, delete the other accounts while logged onto this new account you just created.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Well, I've just managed to gain access to the built in administrator account by using Safe mode, and am still able to do nothing with it!

The trouble with knowing which password controls the UAC is that I can never get to the stage where I am prompted for one, as 'run as administrator' returns an error message. My friend gave me his password, and I got into his user account and removed it. I have tried all the same actions I have tried so far from his user account, and still nothing!

I also keep getting this error message 0x80070005

Benzo,

I would ask your friend if he remembered what he may have changed. It sounds like he may have changed the permission level for the administrator accounts. While you are in Safe Mode using the built-in Administrator account, take ownership of the c:\ drive. Afterwards make sure that the Administrators group has Full control checked under Allow. See Method Two here:

Take Ownership of file

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi Benzo,

Who is the owner of your C:\ partition ? It should be trustedinstaller, so if your "friend" changed the ownership of everything in C:\ you won't be able to run what so ever.
If trustedinstaller is not the owner, try to manage as follows (safe mode).

Right mouse button click on the file and choose Properties
Click Security tab
Click Advanced button
Click Owner tab
Click Edit button
Click Other User or Group and type in NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller
Press Ok on all dialogs until all property dialogs are closed

Hi everyone.

I was able to see this forum coz of my problem regarding user accounts in Vista Home Premium 32bit. I forgot my password(Administrator Account) and now I'm using a standard user account. I tried the "Safe Mode" solution but the default administrator account is not visible. Help me please.

Hi Sakura,

Welcome to Vista x64 Forums.

You will probably need to do Method Three in the tutorial below. If you are locked out of your computer, then you will need to make the boot DVD from Method Three on another computer so you can use it on your computer.

Reset User Account Password

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I tried looking for the owner of C:\, and in the box it displays 'unable to display current owner'. When I go to the edit option it returns an error message:

Can't open access control editor. The system could not find the environment option that was entered.

Is it possible something vital has been deleted?

Benzo,

You might give running a Repair (upgrade) install a try to see if it can fix the problem for you. This tutorial will show you how to.

Repair Install For Vista

Shawn

In the end I was forced to re-install vista, so that it starts like for the first time. Thankfully I backed up my important files regularly so have retrieved them and everything is nearly back to how I like it.

By trying to solve this problem though I have learnt a lot about the UAC and administrative privileges! and especially DON'T LET PEOPLE YOU CAN'T TRUST ONTO YOUR ADMIN ACCOUNT!