Admin Account Disabled By Default

[Jed]

Just loaded 7 and the administrator account is disabled by default. Now since the only account available is a guest account, how do I get logged in as the administrator? How do I make it active with no admin rights?

 

[Jordus]

The account you created during setup will be a member of the administrators group.

The builtin Administrator account is always disabled in Vista or Windows 7 when the OS is installed except under the following circumstances.

1. You do an upgrade install, and the only active Administrator account on the previous install was the builtin Administrator account.

or

2. You insert a synchronous command in an unattend answer file that enables the builtin account during one of the later installation phases.

 

[Iomegaman]

When you say that the Administrator account is disabled by default this is true - however, the account you created after the installation should be an "almost" Administrative account.

If you are infering that the only account avalible to you is the true "Guest" account, then it's possible something went wrong during installation. I've seen this happen before and the easiest and quickest way around it is a quick reinstallation, and see if the same problem occurs.

Tom

 

[Jed]

the account i created during installation is the account i'm trying to use but everytime it asks for a password it doesn't have a place to type a password. and the yes button does nothing. Everything worked at first. I joined it to my domain. Logged in as my network username/password and loaded all my programs. Then to make an image i need to remove it from my domain. once removed the only account seems to be the guest account.

 

[Jordus]

Oh, you didnt mention the domain at first.

In actuality, its recommended that a computer you are making a reference image from is NEVER joined to the domain (even if its unjoined after you made your changes). However I know thats not always feasible and it still should work.

The one thing I can think of off the top of my head is that maybe your domain has a Restricted Groups GPO set thats kicking any non-specified users out of the local Administrators group.

 

[Iomegaman]

Have you got any policies/scripting running on your domain to remove local administrative accounts etc?

Tom

 

[Jed]

not that i'm aware of. It has never removed the admin accounts on any others before

 

[Jed]

Is there no way to enable this administrator account when logged in as a guest?

 

[Jordus]

If there are truly no members in the Administrators group that you can log in as, you are probably stuck and need to reinstall the OS.

 

[Jed]

if i'm not admin there is no way for me to look is there? I mean I made my network username an administrator. but now that it is not on the domain i can't get back on it.

 

[Iomegaman]

When you made your network username an administrator, did you remove your local account as an administrator?

It does sound like you may be stuck and as said by Jordus, it's looking like you may have to reinstall.

Tom

 

[Jed]

no i didn't. the local admin is still there. I try to log in as it but it tells me it is disabled. I need to enable it. it is there.

 

[Iomegaman]

Try here:

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

Download the ISO and burn to a CD. Boot from the CD and follow the steps - I haven't tried this with 7 but can confirm that it works with XP and Vista.

There is an option for renabling disabled accounts.

Tom

 

[Jed]

I think i finally got it

 

[Jed]

I started in safe mode and it had the option to log in as administrator. It says preparing desktop still though so i'm kinda worried its taking way to long.

 

[Jed]

Started in safe mode with command prompt. there was the option to log in as administrator. Logged in then made administrator account active from using


C:\windows\system32

net user administrator /active:yes

 

[Jed]

Thanks for the help