Windows 7 admin account is locked, on;y stuck with a standard account.

sprilite · 24 Sep 2012

Hi, I basically had 3 accounts on my computer, one being "Administrator" (w Admin rights), one "test" (Standard User rights) and one more "User" that is the one I use most frequently (with Admin rights). When I last used it last Friday the User account was still present and all my programs were working fine.

However, when I came back to office today, I found that the User account was missing from the welcome screen, and only the "Administrator" and "test" account were there. Somehow, I could not login to the "Administrator" account. When I logged into the "test" account, all the program shortcuts were blank (Firefox, Adobe Reader Etc) and only IE and the default windows programs would work. I suspected that there might be a virus, but I couldn't install anything because I did not have the admin priviledges.

My question is:

1. How do I get back into my admin account?
2. is there any way to install anti-virus programs (by going around the admin account) to help solve this issue?

In a nutshell, I'm basically stuck with a standard user account and I can't do anything with it. Any help would really be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

*Just to add, I tried using System Restore on the Standard account, but when I click "Open System Restore" nothing happens.

edwar · 24 Sep 2012

First off if you actually named your accounts Administrator and User then that may be part of your problem (Maybe not with the account named User but certainly with the one named Administrator).

Windows already has a built in account named Administrator, even though it is normally disabled by default. Creating a NAMED account using the name Administrator is not a good Idea.

Start by booting into Safe Mode and see if the system boots to the built in, but normally disable, Administrator account. If it does create New Admin rights NAMED account, using some other name then Administrator. From that boot normally and log into that new account and see if you can access your files from the other accounts. You may need to take ownership of those other accounts.

Windows 7 admin account is locked, on;y stuck with a standard account.

Windows 7 admin account is locked, only stuck with a standard account.