Vista Tutorial - User Account - Delete

**Brink**

How to Delete a User Account in Vista

Information

This will show you how to delete a user account with the option to save the contents of the soon to be deleted users account's personal folders into a folder on the desktop of the Administrator account it is being deleted from.

WARNING

Make sure that you always have at least one administrator account to be able to make changes to the computer. If you want to save the user folder files from the user account you are deleting, then make sure you click on Keep Files in frame 6 of the video below. It is highly recommended to not even attempt to delete the built-in Administrator account.

Tip

If you accidentally deleted all of the administrator accounts on your computer, then you can boot into Safe Mode and create a new Administrator account from within it. See: How to Boot Up in and Use Advanced Boot Options in Vista

RELATED LINKS:

Here's How:

1. Copy anything you do not want to lose from the C:\Users\(user name) folders for the account that you want to delete somewhere safe.

2. Open the Control Panel. (Classic View)

3. Click on the Click to Play button in the video below.

4. You can now delete the C:\Users\(user name) folder for the account that you have just deleted.

That's it,
Shawn

chowyungfatso · 07-12-2008

Hi, I'm having problems with the default administrator account (the one that is normally hidden). what happens if I delete that?

**Brink** · 07-12-2008

Hi Chowyungfatso, and welcome to Vista Forums.

If you mean the built-in Administrator account and not the one you set up while installing Vista, then I would not recommend deleting it, if it was possible. You can set it back to hide without any problems though, and enable it again as needed.

Deleting it will leave you with no way to repair your computer if something should happen to your only default administrator account that you set up durring the install of Vista.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

**Fmjc001** · 07-12-2008

	Quote:	chowyungfatso
	Hi, I'm having problems with the default administrator account (the one that is normally hidden). what happens if I delete that?

I don't think you can delete that account. I think MS have protected it so that it cannot be deleted, even by administrators.

chowyungfatso · 07-16-2008

Well, I don't know what I did, but I am able to log in using that Administrator again without it locking up. I was hoping that deleting that account would help, but I ended up uninstalling a lot of programs and "utilities" that I thought would cause issues (TeraCopy, Eraser, TrueCrypt). I also removed an older Adaptec SCSI card I installed right around the time when the adminstrator log-in problems occured (again, it was only the admin account that locked up a few minutes after I logged in--all other accounts were fine), which gave strange errors during POST but seemed to work. I also uninstalled the nVidia control panel (or bits of it, as it doesn't seem to be a way to completely uninstall it) as well.

Thanks for the tips, though. I enjoy reading through the forum, and especially when it's not me having the problem.

**Brink** · 07-16-2008

I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted out Chowyungfatso. Thank you for the feedback.

Shawn

mrtech28 · 4 Weeks Ago

i have a question if i were and able to erase the hidden administrator on windows vista what would happen.

B3nd3r · 4 Weeks Ago

There would be no way for you to repair your system or login to safe mode with the hidden admin account. I would make sure there is at least 1 admin account on the machine

**Brink** · 4 Weeks Ago

Hello MrTech, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You can delete the C:\Users\Administrator folder to delete that accounts settings and reset to have the "Preparing Desktop" message again when you log on to it next. The built-in Administrator account cannot be deleted or removed from Vista, only enabled or disabled.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

**Fmjc001** · 4 Weeks Ago

	Quote:	B3nd3r
	There would be no way for you to repair your system or login to safe mode with the hidden admin account. I would make sure there is at least 1 admin account on the machine

You can make another administrator account without having any administrator privileges, the built in admin account is not needed.