Vista - I deleted the administrator account

I changed the administrator account to a standard user by accident, so now I
ended up without an administrator account. How can I set up an administrator
account again?

Ml

If there are no administrator accounts configured on the system, you can
boot to Safe Mode and the Built-in Administrator account will be available
to log on. You can use this account to create another administrator account
or change the Standard account back to an administrator.

Restart the computer and start pressing the F8 key as soon as it starts to
initialize. You will get a black screen menu. Use the Arrow keys to select
Safe Mode and press Enter. The account 'Administrator' should appear at the
login screen. Select this account. There is no password associated with this
account, by default.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"ml" <ml@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8AD28BD0-49BF-4E64-9D7D-BFA87D64E4C6@xxxxxx

But what if the administrator account is disabled?

Daymarr

Do you mean the Built-in Administrator account? If so, it is supposed to be
disabled, by default. It will still show up in Safe Mode, but only if there
are no other administrator account on the system.

If you meant that if there is another normal administrator account on the
system that has been disabled or hidden by the user, then no, the built-in
administrator account will not show up in safe mode.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"Daymarr" <Daymarr@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:C22B666E-92CE-4CE2-892C-20EB907560C0@xxxxxx

Hi. thanks for the response.

I can't get to Safe mode by pressing F8. I am using a Mac, pre-installed w/
Mac OS, and running Windows on top of Parallel.

Is there any other way to get to safe mode..?

thanks,

Michelle

"Ronnie Vernon MVP" wrote:

Hi Michelle

Sorry, I'm clueless when it comes to the MAC?

Someone else here may be able to help.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"ml" <ml@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A748F7FA-5021-463C-ACA2-D2D544F61EDB@xxxxxx

I did the same and even Safe Mode did not display the Hidden Admin account.... which made me think that there was still a hidden Admin Account somewhere in there as apparently the Hidden Admin account will only become apparent after all others are gone???? Anyway I checked the Special Accounts in the Registry and ther was a logmein account created when we trialed logmein at logmein.com It downloads and installs an Admin account with remote login and password that you set...
So I Logged in remotely using RDP to the Vista box using the logmein Admin account created a couple Admin accounts and all fixed :-)
Try and install logmein... Hopefully you will be able to without being a administrator????
I was very lucky.......

I don't know if this will help anyone...but when I first got confused with this administrator vusiness I was poking around everywhere trying to figure out how to gain access to use the cmd prompt. I tried a lot of things, and nothing worked. It still said I needed elevated status. If you click on all programs, assessories and then right click on command prompt when it comes up, it will give you the option to run as administrator. I was completely new to Vista, and I was trying to release and renew my IP address. I was confused b/c I was finding Run and right clicking on that and the option to run as administrator wasn't there, but if you go through all programs and assessories it is...

NGG

I created the same problem by accidentally changing my administrator account to user account. I could not do anything. I tried the command prompt as administrator to activate the hidden Admin account as discussed. I called Dell paid support and spent an hour with them. He tried to do a system restore (via the menus, via Safe Boot, etc.), but I always got this error.
System Restore ERROR:: 0x80040154. I specifically asked him if I could Restore or repair from the Vista CD. He said no.

My computer has an administrator aco**** called RA Media Services, although it does not show up as a choice at login, only on the user accounts page. I asked Dell if there was a way to use this is as a "back door". I specifically asked two different tech support people if this account had anything to do with Remote Access. They said no, it must be an account left over from previous owner (I bought this refurbished), which bothered me but that's a whole other issue. They said the only option was to reinstall Vista since system restore wasn't working. (Found out later, yes, RA Media Services does have something to do with Remote Access. Thanks.)

After giving up on them, I found this helpful site to try to reset passwords. I tried it on the RA Media Services login. It looks risky, but I had nothing to lose at this point. Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
Did not work for me, but I'm glad I know it's there in the future!

So I am screwed, right? I eventually decided to try the Vista reinstall disk and see if it had other options. Bingo. It has an option for System Restore that was able to restore me to a previous installation. No thanks to Dell support who specifically told me no. I was able to restore to the day before and voila, all is well. This took literally 4 hours or so, so I hope my experience can help others.