How to enable Administrator account in Vista

Posted on June 3, 2008 at 5:19 am

Need to logon as Administrator in Vista? Well first you need to enable the Administrator account! Annoying right? By default, Vista’s secure computing initiative decided that it would be best to disable the Administrator account in Vista so that malicious programs cannot run and take over your computer.

Actually, it’s a good security measure, it’s just annoying if you need to logon to the Administrator account. Luckily, it’s not very hard to enable the admin account in Vista, so here are the steps you need to take in order to get the Administrator account as an option on the Vista logon screen.

administrator vista

Enable Administrator Account in Vista

Step 1: First you need to click on the Start Menu and right click on Computer. From the context menu, choose Manage.

manage computer

Step 2: In the left hand menu, expand Local User and Groups and then click on Users.

computer management vista

Step 3: Now right-click on the Administrator account and choose Properties. You’ll see a check box called “Account is disabled” that is checked.

administrator

Go ahead and un-check that box to enable the Administrator account in Vista! That’s it! If this didn’t work for some reason, post a comment and I can try to help. Enjoy!

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11 Responses to “How to enable Administrator account in Vista”

  1. abhsihek said on : June 3rd, 2008 at 9:58 am

    gud tip buddy…simple and neat.


  2. **Juanito** said on : June 3rd, 2008 at 2:38 pm

    Thanks, I use “net user administrator /active:yes” command.
    Greetings


  3. akishore said on : June 3rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm

    Abhsihek - Thanks! I like the simple how-to guide every once in a while.

    Juanito - Nice! I didn’t know that command! Does that enable the Vista administrator account?


  4. David said on : June 17th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    I am doing all these steps but not getting the administrator icon after logging off


  5. SURESH said on : July 7th, 2008 at 4:34 am

    if i use this command i am getting and “:error message assces denied ”

    “system error 05″

    I use “net user administrator /active:yes”

    how to rectify it please reply mee

    i have limited user account only


  6. ganesh chandra said on : July 18th, 2008 at 4:45 pm

    Thanks.

    This works for Vista Ultimate. How about vista Home basic or Home Premium where there is no Local User access ?

    You need to do in command prompt only (Start > Run > CMD).

    Then type, “net user administrator /active“


  7. kaka said on : July 18th, 2008 at 10:43 pm

    I have Home Premium and there’s no Local users and groups-item in my Comp mgmt console!!!

    Help?
    Do I dare to do the cmd prompt thing?


  8. ganesh chandra said on : July 19th, 2008 at 9:25 pm

    yeah, command prompt works great.


  9. Ceci said on : August 6th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

    I didn’t have “Local Users and Groups” in the menu. Only Task Scheduler, Event Viewer, Shared Folders, Reliability and Performance, and Device Manager. I made myself Administrator (I thought) through the User Accounts.

    However, suddenly I get “This program has been disabled” when I try to restore my desktop wallpaper. It tells me to contact the System Administrator. I found something about secpol.msc, but my computer is Home Basic and doesn’t have it.


  10. Ganesh Chandra said on : August 7th, 2008 at 9:21 am

    Ceci,

    Only Vista Ultimate has Local Users and Groups in menu. Admin through User Account doesnt give your admin privileges.

    You need to do in command prompt only (Start > Run > CMD).

    Then type, net user administrator /active


  11. rober henry said on : August 17th, 2008 at 3:56 am

    well I wish it was that easy but not quite. unfortunately vista home premium defaults with the following CMD line

    C:\users\robert henry\

    in my case anyway. not to worry though the administrator account can be done in CMD and you can get rid of another pesky vista problem at the same time (UAC) yea the stupid little tingy that asks you every 5 seconds if you are sure you want to do what you are doing.

    here is how you do it. open configeration utility (start search for msconfig there is only one thing there open it)
    go to tools
    look for the line that says disable UAC
    click it
    click launch at the bottom right of the screen
    a CMD opens and at the top it says operation successful

    on the new command line that is now there and is not linked to the local user account that you are logged in as type

    net user administrator /active

    hit enter and a confirmation comes up. you will need to restart the computer but when you do UAC is off and administrator is on. note that you will need to add a administrator password to the administrator account and under the disable button is the enable button if for some off reason you ever want to turn on UAC again

    hope this is helpful


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