No more Admins...

This is my accounts settings: Administrator (disabled), Account A (normal
user), Account B (administrator). I would like to remove Account B for adding
another administrator Account D. I went to computer management with Account
A, UAC asks me te Account B password, I made the Account D and deleted the
Account B. But I make I mistake: I forgot to assign Account D admin right so
I loose a valid Admin in my system. How to recover this issue? I think that
the OS should prevent this issue.

I think "Account A" needs to back away from the keyboard.
The Vista computer management snap-in doesn't allow you to manage user
accounts. I don't think you did exactly what you say you did. You still have
an Administrator account on your machine. Anyways, renaming 'Account B'
would have been easier.

"Rodolfo" <Rodolfo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:ED986E82-3E5F-49F7-A798-D46B0389B0E6@microsoft.com...
> This is my accounts settings: Administrator (disabled), Account A (normal
> user), Account B (administrator). I would like to remove Account B for
> adding
> another administrator Account D. I went to computer management with
> Account
> A, UAC asks me te Account B password, I made the Account D and deleted the
> Account B. But I make I mistake: I forgot to assign Account D admin right
> so
> I loose a valid Admin in my system. How to recover this issue? I think
> that
> the OS should prevent this issue.

If you go to Computer > Manage You open the mmc console and You can manage
users. The problem is that I opened the mmc with Administrative privilege, so
I could repair to may mistake meanwhile the mmc was still open. Once I
deleted the aministrative account, forgot to assign administrative privilege
to second account e closed the mmc I had no more admins (I have Administrator
which is disabled).
Ciao.

"Jeff" wrote:

> I think "Account A" needs to back away from the keyboard.
> The Vista computer management snap-in doesn't allow you to manage user
> accounts. I don't think you did exactly what you say you did. You still have
> an Administrator account on your machine. Anyways, renaming 'Account B'
> would have been easier.
>
> "Rodolfo" <Rodolfo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:ED986E82-3E5F-49F7-A798-D46B0389B0E6@microsoft.com...
> > This is my accounts settings: Administrator (disabled), Account A (normal
> > user), Account B (administrator). I would like to remove Account B for
> > adding
> > another administrator Account D. I went to computer management with
> > Account
> > A, UAC asks me te Account B password, I made the Account D and deleted the
> > Account B. But I make I mistake: I forgot to assign Account D admin right
> > so
> > I loose a valid Admin in my system. How to recover this issue? I think
> > that
> > the OS should prevent this issue.
>

Is your computer a member of a domain? What version of Vista do you have?

"Rodolfo" <Rodolfo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7AAA167A-0348-4C8E-87E8-8898FB356E81@microsoft.com...
> If you go to Computer > Manage You open the mmc console and You can manage
> users. The problem is that I opened the mmc with Administrative privilege,
> so
> I could repair to may mistake meanwhile the mmc was still open. Once I
> deleted the aministrative account, forgot to assign administrative
> privilege
> to second account e closed the mmc I had no more admins (I have
> Administrator
> which is disabled).
> Ciao.
>
> "Jeff" wrote:
>
>> I think "Account A" needs to back away from the keyboard.
>> The Vista computer management snap-in doesn't allow you to manage user
>> accounts. I don't think you did exactly what you say you did. You still
>> have
>> an Administrator account on your machine. Anyways, renaming 'Account B'
>> would have been easier.
>>
>> "Rodolfo" <Rodolfo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:ED986E82-3E5F-49F7-A798-D46B0389B0E6@microsoft.com...
>> > This is my accounts settings: Administrator (disabled), Account A
>> > (normal
>> > user), Account B (administrator). I would like to remove Account B for
>> > adding
>> > another administrator Account D. I went to computer management with
>> > Account
>> > A, UAC asks me te Account B password, I made the Account D and deleted
>> > the
>> > Account B. But I make I mistake: I forgot to assign Account D admin
>> > right
>> > so
>> > I loose a valid Admin in my system. How to recover this issue? I think
>> > that
>> > the OS should prevent this issue.
>>

"Rodolfo" <Rodolfo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:ED986E82-3E5F-49F7-A798-D46B0389B0E6@microsoft.com...
> This is my accounts settings: Administrator (disabled), Account A (normal
> user), Account B (administrator). I would like to remove Account B for
> adding
> another administrator Account D. I went to computer management with
> Account
> A, UAC asks me te Account B password, I made the Account D and deleted the
> Account B. But I make I mistake: I forgot to assign Account D admin right
> so
> I loose a valid Admin in my system. How to recover this issue? I think
> that
> the OS should prevent this issue.


Reboot into safe mode. If there are no administrator accounts the disabled
"Administrator" account is suppose to automatically enable itself in safe
mode. You should be able to logon in safe mode with the "Administrator"
account and fix the problem. I haven't tried this myself. Please let us know
if it works.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca

I did something simular to "Rodolfo", but when i boot into "safe mode" the
administrator account is not listed.

What I did is not delete my admin account, but accidentaly added it to a
list of hidden accounts on the "welcome/login" screen in the registry. Now
when i try to do anything that needs admin UAC, there is no option to enter a
username and/or password.

And since I have no other admin account I cannot access the registry to
remove that setting, because its in the local_machine tree which requires
admin access.
I do have the built-in administrator account still, but its inactive (out of
the box default still).

I don't know what I can do to get admin control back on this computer! I
wish the "ctrl-alt-delete" login prompt would be enabled by defauly at the
welcome screen like it is in XP. I could login that way, but its not. There
is a way to enable it but of course you need admin/UAC access to enable it.

"Kerry Brown" wrote:

> "Rodolfo" <Rodolfo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:ED986E82-3E5F-49F7-A798-D46B0389B0E6@microsoft.com...
> > This is my accounts settings: Administrator (disabled), Account A (normal
> > user), Account B (administrator). I would like to remove Account B for
> > adding
> > another administrator Account D. I went to computer management with
> > Account
> > A, UAC asks me te Account B password, I made the Account D and deleted the
> > Account B. But I make I mistake: I forgot to assign Account D admin right
> > so
> > I loose a valid Admin in my system. How to recover this issue? I think
> > that
> > the OS should prevent this issue.
>
>
> Reboot into safe mode. If there are no administrator accounts the disabled
> "Administrator" account is suppose to automatically enable itself in safe
> mode. You should be able to logon in safe mode with the "Administrator"
> account and fix the problem. I haven't tried this myself. Please let us know
> if it works.
>
> --
> Kerry Brown
> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>
>
>

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 17:24:02 -0700, Canadaka
<Canadaka@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I did something simular to "Rodolfo", but when i boot into "safe mode" the
>administrator account is not listed.
>
>What I did is not delete my admin account, but accidentaly added it to a
>list of hidden accounts on the "welcome/login" screen in the registry. Now
>when i try to do anything that needs admin UAC, there is no option to enter a
>username and/or password.
>
>And since I have no other admin account I cannot access the registry to
>remove that setting, because its in the local_machine tree which requires
>admin access.
>I do have the built-in administrator account still, but its inactive (out of
>the box default still).
>
>I don't know what I can do to get admin control back on this computer! I
>wish the "ctrl-alt-delete" login prompt would be enabled by defauly at the
>welcome screen like it is in XP. I could login that way, but its not. There
>is a way to enable it but of course you need admin/UAC access to enable it.
>

Or, you need to install a third-party registry manager for Vista, such as
VistaManager, from , Ashampoo, or TweakVista.
Such software will enable one to change many hidden options of Vista.

With the exception of Vista Manager, these tools are relatively inexpensive.
All three are easy to use.

Formerly, XP users used TweakUI (from Microsoft) to make such changes easily.
But the introduction of Microsoft's newest OS broke TweakUI for use with
Vista.


Donald L McDaniel
Please reply to the original thread and message.
=====================================================

thanks for the suggestion, but I am still lockied out of the computer.

Tweakvista had no options that could fix the problem, and I can't even
install VistaManager because it asks for UAC permission when launching the
setup exe.
(the UAC "ok" button is greyed out and there is no field to enter a username
or password)

There must be a way around this besides formatting the computer!

"Donald L McDaniel" wrote:

> On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 17:24:02 -0700, Canadaka
> <Canadaka@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >I did something simular to "Rodolfo", but when i boot into "safe mode" the
> >administrator account is not listed.
> >
> >What I did is not delete my admin account, but accidentaly added it to a
> >list of hidden accounts on the "welcome/login" screen in the registry. Now
> >when i try to do anything that needs admin UAC, there is no option to enter a
> >username and/or password.
> >
> >And since I have no other admin account I cannot access the registry to
> >remove that setting, because its in the local_machine tree which requires
> >admin access.
> >I do have the built-in administrator account still, but its inactive (out of
> >the box default still).
> >
> >I don't know what I can do to get admin control back on this computer! I
> >wish the "ctrl-alt-delete" login prompt would be enabled by defauly at the
> >welcome screen like it is in XP. I could login that way, but its not. There
> >is a way to enable it but of course you need admin/UAC access to enable it.
> >
>
> Or, you need to install a third-party registry manager for Vista, such as
> VistaManager, from , Ashampoo, or TweakVista.
> Such software will enable one to change many hidden options of Vista.
>
> With the exception of Vista Manager, these tools are relatively inexpensive.
> All three are easy to use.
>
> Formerly, XP users used TweakUI (from Microsoft) to make such changes easily.
> But the introduction of Microsoft's newest OS broke TweakUI for use with
> Vista.
>
>
> Donald L McDaniel
> Please reply to the original thread and message.
> =====================================================
>

I'm not sure why this doens't work for me, I have not touched the built-in
administrator account, yet when I boot to safemode it is not there.

"Kerry Brown" wrote:

> "Rodolfo" <Rodolfo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:ED986E82-3E5F-49F7-A798-D46B0389B0E6@microsoft.com...
> > This is my accounts settings: Administrator (disabled), Account A (normal
> > user), Account B (administrator). I would like to remove Account B for
> > adding
> > another administrator Account D. I went to computer management with
> > Account
> > A, UAC asks me te Account B password, I made the Account D and deleted the
> > Account B. But I make I mistake: I forgot to assign Account D admin right
> > so
> > I loose a valid Admin in my system. How to recover this issue? I think
> > that
> > the OS should prevent this issue.
>
>
> Reboot into safe mode. If there are no administrator accounts the disabled
> "Administrator" account is suppose to automatically enable itself in safe
> mode. You should be able to logon in safe mode with the "Administrator"
> account and fix the problem. I haven't tried this myself. Please let us know
> if it works.
>
> --
> Kerry Brown
> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>
>
>

Hi

It's probably not working because you didn't delete your admin account, you
just hid it. Apparently when you boot to safe mode, the system is detecting
that admin account, even though it is hidden. This is why the built-in admin
account is not showing up there.

I agree, there should be some way around this, but I haven't found the magic
key yet?

I have been doing some extensive testing on this issue, for another user who
was in a similar situation, the only difference was that his admin account
was lost or corrupted somehow when performing an upgrade from Home Basic to
Home Premium. Even though he lost his only admin account, the built-in admin
account would not show up in Safe Mode?

I have tried to recreate this scenario using all 4 consumer versions of
Vista and have not been able to do it, so far?

The last admin account does not offer any way to either change the type of
account to Standard User or delete the account, in the user interface. I
have been able to delete the last admin account at a command prompt, using
the net user <accountname> /delete command. This can be accomplished when
logged into a Standard Account and elevating the command prompt, using the
about to be deleted, admin accounts privileges or, it will even work if you
are actually logged in with that admin account since the actual delete does
not take place until a log off occurs.

In all versions, when the last admin account is deleted and the system is
booted into Safe Mode, the built-in admin account is available for logon.
Having UAC on or off prior to deleting the last admin account does not alter
this behavior.

The only thing I haven't tried yet is booting with the installation disk and
trying to reveal the built-in admin account with the net user administrator
/active:yes command. But that's next. Though the problem with this is
that not everyone has an installation disk.



--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"Canadaka" <Canadaka@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:342BA634-5DAC-41C6-9198-A898F0CCE162@microsoft.com...
> I'm not sure why this doens't work for me, I have not touched the built-in
> administrator account, yet when I boot to safemode it is not there.
>
> "Kerry Brown" wrote:
>
>> "Rodolfo" <Rodolfo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:ED986E82-3E5F-49F7-A798-D46B0389B0E6@microsoft.com...
>> > This is my accounts settings: Administrator (disabled), Account A
>> > (normal
>> > user), Account B (administrator). I would like to remove Account B for
>> > adding
>> > another administrator Account D. I went to computer management with
>> > Account
>> > A, UAC asks me te Account B password, I made the Account D and deleted
>> > the
>> > Account B. But I make I mistake: I forgot to assign Account D admin
>> > right
>> > so
>> > I loose a valid Admin in my system. How to recover this issue? I think
>> > that
>> > the OS should prevent this issue.
>>
>>
>> Reboot into safe mode. If there are no administrator accounts the
>> disabled
>> "Administrator" account is suppose to automatically enable itself in safe
>> mode. You should be able to logon in safe mode with the "Administrator"
>> account and fix the problem. I haven't tried this myself. Please let us
>> know
>> if it works.
>>
>> --
>> Kerry Brown
>> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
>> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>>
>>
>>