Locked myself out of administrator level - help!

Hi all,

My problem occured when I modified my only administrator user account to auto-logon via 'netplwiz' (I also added a full name account to the account as well).

Finished changing this, then I realise I'm now been demoted to a Guest account, and stuck at this level!

I can not activate administrator for any playing I can do so far.


Any ideas without a reinstall (I'm on a system without a CD/DVD drive)

Thanks
Craig

Google this: ntpasswd

It will work...........................

EDIT: I may have jumped the gun..........didn't read it clearly.

Hi,

Worth reading this first

NTPasswd Password Recovery on Vista/XP « TechScrawl.com

Yep SIW2. I have had the same experience and results as the author of your link. Must read.

Hi,
I've got the NTPasswd working fine & booting on USB.
I can promote Guest login to Admin, but I can not promote my own login "Craig" to Admin. Craig <> Guest I suppose.
I removed the password from Craig and tried again, still no luck.

cheers
Craig

Have you tried logging in as the Global Administrator? ::
Go to Start/All Programs and right click the command prompt.
Type Control UserPasswords2.
Click Advanced.
Click Advanced again.
Select Users.
Select Administrator and untick the the box “Administrator is disabled”
Now log out and login as Administrator.

If you find, because of a “lower” edition, or level, of Windows 7, you cannot open the window above, do it this way:
Shut down the computer for a cold boot. Tap the "F8" key as you are booting.
Select "Safe Mode with networking" from the boot menu.
Log into windows Vista with your personal account that holds the administrator access.
Open a command window (START--->RUN--->CMD.exe). At the command prompt type the following "net user administrator /active".

Log out and log back in as administrator.

hi davehc,
I tried all options you discussed, all came up administrator password required (with no window to type it LOL), on in the case of DOS window (safe mode) "Access is denied"

I'm going back into ntpasswd having another look!

cheers
C

On the second method, right click the Command Prompt and select "Run as Administrator", before proceeding.

After my previous message I found a fix, and now working at admin!!

My story goes... while I was still in safe mode, I tried switching between users, and found I had the choice of the guest account (not seen before, that had been promoted to admin with ntpasswd).
ANother strange issue, looking at users my orginal user name "craig" had disappeared, and I could not add again (windows error of "invalid characters"??).
So there a few issues on this side... and that's why it called beta I suppose LOL

thanks for your help.. & cheers
Craig

Google and download ophcrack live cd! It creates a bootdisk that uses brute force to crack your passwords!

Darryl Licht said:

Google and download ophcrack live cd! It creates a bootdisk that uses brute force to crack your passwords!

Click to expand...

The OP has probably moved on to other issues by now

As a suggestion, it invites bad computer karma to assist in any type of activity or method which would seek to bypass security. As difficult as it is to watch the suffering of a fellow enthusiast, and as much as you know you can probably suggest a way to work around that security barrier - don't.

You can never tell whether they really are who they pretend to be, and whether their story is true, and that is in no way meant to refer to this OP specifically. If I was trying to get somebody to help me gain admin rights on a stolen system, I'd most likely start off my plea in a rather innocent tone...

"HELP! My college exams are next week, and all my work is on this machine, and I've forgotten the only admin account password, and I simply cannot pass without my notes, and my parents will disown me if I fail, and ... and I think I'm going to cryyyy if you're too cruel to help me!!!! (BTW, I'm a chick, just so you know, and I usually call myself 'Mandy21'.)"

The guideline is simple: no assistance granted or offered on any attempt to bypass security. If they don't know the password(s), they can reinstall the OS and start again. It's instructive anyway.