New owner but cannot remove previous owner as administrator


  1. Posts : 1
    Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit with SP1
       #1

    New owner but cannot remove previous owner as administrator


    I recently bought an Acer AX3810 with Vista 7 Home Premium 64 bit from the widow of my neighbor. I had transferred all his personal files and copied all the photographs to an external hard drive for her then deleted all the files using "Eraser". I cannot seem to be able to delete the previous owner as administrator. His file has a little padlock symbol on it. I changed his name to mine in the "Manage user accounts" but no matter, it is still "him" that is logged on. I created a new account in my name and then changed the status from standard to administrator but he is still "there". I feel like I am being haunted. Any ideas?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 2,409
    Windows 7 Professional 32-bit/Windows 8 64-bit/Win7 Pro64-bit
       #2

    You could do a clean install: Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 280
    Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
       #3

    I'd do a clean install also. However, you can always just disable his account using the net user command.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 28
    Windows 7 UnProfessional x64
       #4

    Can you do it from the built in Administrator account? You can enable that account via command prompt: net user Administrator /active:yes

    Built-in Administrator Account - Enable or Disable

    Log out and log into the Admin account, then try to delete the account in question.

    (To disable the Admin account, change the end of the syntax from active:yes to active:no)
      My Computer

  5.    #5

    What is Vista 7 Home Premium? It should be either Vista or Win7.

    You'll never be able to completely remove the old owner's name, but you'll also not get best Win7 performance if it's still the factory pre-installed Windows. That's why I would do the Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to get a fresh start with a perfect install with our help. Following those steps will result in getting and keeping a perfect install.

    If you want to keep the old OS then the most you can do is here: User Profile Folder - Change User Account Folder Name
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 13,576
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #6

    Reinstall windows with the version that came with the pc, use the COA to activate it.
    Last edited by AddRAM; 22 Apr 2015 at 17:48.
      My Computer


 

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