2nd administrator account password probs preventing installations

I have Windows Home Premium 32-bit installed on a HP PC about 4 months old.

Background (and problem 1)
Initially I had an admin account but that wouldn't lock - this was a problem with my 11 year old son in the background! HP advised that this was due to some corruption in the account settings. I therefore set up a user account and another admin account (both of which did lock). I wanted to install all software on the second admin account and delete the first. But I realised I'd need to copy across emails, Outlook settings, Firefox favourites etc. Since this would need a bit of non-trivial internet research (any suggestions?) this was a job for another time

Problem 2
I now want to upgrade my antivirus from AVG7.5 to AVG8. I can't, and it seems that this is because I can't remember my password for the 2nd admin account - really annoying, since I don't use many. In fact this problem is now stopping me installing or deleting *any* software

What I've tried

1) Control panel stuff (e.g. manage other accounts): Logging into the 1st admin account won't allow me to reset/remove the password for the second *admin* account without knowing the password to that account

2) Look at TechNet on Microsoft
They adviser running "net user administrator /active:yes" but that doesn't work for me because it requires a password on the 2nd admin account. A relevant article seems to be Enable and Disable the Built-in Administrator Account
But that's way beyond me; I don't understand how to change the xml file shown to an automatic logon as "true" administrator - or indeed whether this would enable me to remove the 2nd admin account. And I can't get the alternative of using the MMC to work; the MMC is completely empty for me.


2) Look at and act on Reset User Account Password

Method One - says you can rest password on another admin account. Seems to be the same method as 1 above, and therefore requires you to know the password for that account(?)

Method Two -I think this method is about user accounts rather than admin accounts. It usefully talks about the "Real Built-in Administrator Account in Vista" and enabling this in safe mode, but again in relation to user accounts. I *can't* get access to the "real admin account" since this seems to require running something like "net user administrator /active:yes" *as an administrator" from the command prompt. As soon as I try this it wants the password for the 2nd admin account [IMG]file:///C:/Users/HPPC%7E1/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG]

Method 3 - make boot disk with 3rd party utility is pretty radical. I was desperate enough to try it, but got the message "Accessing physical drive: Access in denied. Did not successfully update the MBR; continuing ...." then nothing else happens

Method 4 - use a password rest disk. Problem is that I didn't create one and, presumably it's too late now as I don't remember the password for the 2nd admin account.

Method 5: system restore. Problem is I'm asked for the password for the 2nd admin account when I try this.

Next steps

Guys I'm pretty worried about this. I've tried booting onto safe mode, but can't get anywhere. HP don't supply Vista CDs. Even if they did I'd have to back up all data, emails etc, and would probably miss something. And it looks as though I'll struggle to do a system recovery anyway (destructive or not).

What's left?

Regards
Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Welcome to Vista Forums.

I agree and removed Method Two. Don't know what I was thinking then now.

You might give doing a System Restore using Method Two in this tutorial.

System Restore - How to

Since you do not have a Vista installation DVD, you may need to create this recovery disk first to be able to run System Restore using Method Two. Since you are locked out of your computer, you will probably need to make it on another computer to use on yours.

Create a Recovery Disc

Hope this helps,
Shawn