Vista - big problem, deleted administrators

I did a bad thing by removing all the users on the machine from the
administrators group. In addition, by default the built-in administrator is
disabled.

I was trying to setup a specific user as an admin and the others as standard
users, so I created the user "_____admin" and the other user "_____".
Thought I placed the admin user in the admin group and then removed the
standard user from the administrators group. It went wrong and now I have
nobody in the administrators group.

Is there anyone that could help me out of this jam?



--
Mike O.

Hi Mike,

You might try doing a Repair Install. This will allow you to repair your Vista installation without loosing your files, settings, and programs.

Repair Install For Vista

Shawn

Mike

You should be able to boot into Safe Mode and the Built-In Administrator
account will appear on the login screen. It is hidden in normal mode, but is
designed to appear in safe mode if there are no other administrator accounts
on the system. This is a built-in safety net in case this situation does
arise. There is no password associated with this account, unless you have
added one.



--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"Mike.ONeal" <MikeONeal@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:68410AA2-6426-4FCC-A2A2-110F1E50651F@xxxxxx

Ronnie,

This worked. This solution was quick and efficient. Thank you very much.

If I may add, the more I use Vista and find out about it's hidden treasures,
the more I like it.
--
Mike O.


"Ronnie Vernon MVP" wrote:

Mike

Glad to hear this. Thanks for letting me know.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"Mike.ONeal" <MikeONeal@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A08A3CC3-CDDA-41A6-AE87-26FC4C100750@xxxxxx

I'm still having problems as I don't know what the admin password is. Have
spent several hours on this and the password is not coming to me! I have
other accounts on my machine that I can get into but none are administrators.
Can I make one of them an administrator somehow, or can I access the hidden
admin account without deleting the other users? I do have an encrypted list
for the passwords but how do I decrypt?

"Ronnie Vernon MVP" wrote:

Debrad

If you have forgotten the password for the only administrator account on the
computer, you do not have a lot of options to recover. You cannot do
anything that requires administrator privileges unless you know that
password. This includes enabling the built-in administrator account. You
cannot even access the built-in administrator account in Safe Mode.

The recovery options you do have is:

1. If you have an upgrade or full Vista installation disk, there is a
procedure available that will allow to enable the built-in administrator
account which you could use to change the password for the other
administrator account. (This does not include a recovery disk that is
supplied with a new computer)

See option 2 at the following website.
What do I do: I can no longer log in or elevate to an administrator account:
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/Administ..._of_admin.aspx


2. You can purchase a preogram that can reset the password on your
administrator account.

Here is the program I recommend.

A@xxxxxx: Windows Password Recovery Software. Reset Administrator Password. XP
VISTA 2003 2000 NT.:
http://www.password-changer.com/






--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"Debrad" <Debrad@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:E27E5FDB-7FB4-4ED7-8CE7-CBC571DCBEEA@xxxxxx