Admin and Standard Account Users

[bhavz]

Hi All,

Windows 7 Professional 64bit

I have used the guide on how to enable and hide the in-built admin account and was successful however I found that after making the account I used to set up Windows 7 from admin to standard user and then disabling the in-built admin account the UAC setting would not correctly work, as it wanted admin privileges but it was not giving me the option to enter the admin password. The ok button would be greyed out.

Has anyone come across this before and if so what is the solution.

 

[brreaker]

Never happened to me before, however, did you try going into safemode and sorting it out from there?

 

[bhavz]

Never happened to me before, however, did you try going into safemode and sorting it out from there?

I just reversed what I had done by enabling my account to admin and hiding the inbuilt admin account.

I am trying to just have a standard account and hide the admin account but allow the UAC to work as normal i.e. with prompts for admin password.

 

[brreaker]

If you were to create another account with admin priviledges I guess it might work, but then there would be no point in hiding the first one in the first place, would it?
I'm gonna research this a bit, see if I come up with anything, if not, might try it myself and see how it goes

 

[hondaprelude]

Have you tried to reenable the in built admin Account and giving it a password then disabling it again. You must have a password in order to have the UAC work.

 

[mitchell65]

Have you tried to reenable the in built admin Account and giving it a password then disabling it again. You must have a password in order to have the UAC work.

Not true. The UAC will work by default unless you disable it, and that is not a wise move. There seems to be some confusion over the Hidden Admin Account and a standard admin account. When you set up Win 7 it automatically sets up an account with Admin permissions. You can set a password for that account without involving the hidden Admin Account by going into Control Panel User Accounts.

 

[bhavz]

Thanks for all your replies,

I have attached a pic of the message that appears when something wants a admin password as it shows it doesn't give me the option to enter in the password when I disable the admin account.

Perhaps I am making a mistake somewhere as I want the standard account to appear and hide the admin account but allow the UAC prompts to work as normal.

 

[mitchell65]

Well that does look odd!
I am still confused as to what account you are in when this happens. Please go to Control Panel then "User Accounts" and post a screen shot showing the users on the PC. Post which ones you have a password set for. Do not post the actual passwords.

 

[bhavz]

As requested I have attached the screen shot.

The message appears in the standard user account after the admin account as been hidden/disabled. but at present the screenshot shows as the admin account being enabled.

 

[mitchell65]

What you show above is perfectly normal. You can't disable the Bhavesh account. You must always have at least one Admin account operational. So going back to your post #3 this cannot be done as I said you must always have at least one Admin account working. How exactly did you disable the Hidden Admin Account?

 

[bhavz]

I used the instructions from the tutorial.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/507-built-administrator-account-enable-disable.html

If I need to have the admin account active, is there a way not to display this at the logon screen ?

 

[mitchell65]

If I need to have the admin account active, is there a way not to display this at the logon screen ?

If you really insist on doing this then look here:
login - How to hide admin account and only show main user at logon screen in Windows 7? - Super User
But remeber you will not be able to login to Admin unless you edit the registry every time. That in my view would not be a good choice. One false move and you will have lost the ability to login with anything!

 

[mitchell65]

Thanks for all your replies,

I have attached a pic of the message that appears when something wants a admin password as it shows it doesn't give me the option to enter in the password when I disable the admin account.

Perhaps I am making a mistake somewhere as I want the standard account to appear and hide the admin account but allow the UAC prompts to work as normal.

Going back to your other point:
What account were you in when you got this UAC window ? I would guess it was the standard user account but await your reply!

 

[bhavz]

Thanks for all your replies,

I have attached a pic of the message that appears when something wants a admin password as it shows it doesn't give me the option to enter in the password when I disable the admin account.

Perhaps I am making a mistake somewhere as I want the standard account to appear and hide the admin account but allow the UAC prompts to work as normal.

Going back to your other point:
What account were you in when you got this UAC window ? I would guess it was the standard user account but await your reply!

Yes I was in the standard account

 

[bhavz]

If I need to have the admin account active, is there a way not to display this at the logon screen ?

If you really insist on doing this then look here:
login - How to hide admin account and only show main user at logon screen in Windows 7? - Super User
But remeber you will not be able to login to Admin unless you edit the registry every time. That in my view would not be a good choice. One false move and you will have lost the ability to login with anything!

I tried this method and unfortunately it didn't work as I wanted, as the standard user still had no option to enter the admin password.
Also this method is very difficult to reverse as there is no way to edit the registry without an admin account. It has taken me a few hours to get my PC back to normal.

 

[mitchell65]

Then I can see why you got that message. Whether you have UAC enabled or not when in a standard user account you do not have permissions to defrag a hard drive or any other system husbandry for that matter. It wouldn't make sense to give all your users this option as they might just as well be given full Admin permissions!
BTW I think you will find if you search through this Forum that the general opinion of most of the experts here say that with Windows 7 you do not need third party clean up software, that provided within Windows 7 is quite sufficient for most needs. Indeed there is a big raft of opinion that suggests that some of these third party programs especiall registry cleaners do more harm than good. It's always as well to seek expert opinion here before installing and using these programs.
EDIT: Our posts crossed there but I think my post explains why you can't edit the registry in a standard user account.

Just interested by why is it so necessary to hide the admin account at the login screen?

 

[bhavz]

Then I can see why you got that message. Whether you have UAC enabled or not when in a standard user account you do not have permissions to defrag a hard drive or any other system husbandry for that matter. It wouldn't make sense to give all your users this option as they might just as well be given full Admin permissions!
BTW I think you will find if you search through this Forum that the general opinion of most of the experts here say that with Windows 7 you do not need third party clean up software, that provided within Windows 7 is quite sufficient for most needs. Indeed there is a big raft of opinion that suggests that some of these third party programs especiall registry cleaners do more harm than good. It's always as well to seek expert opinion here before installing and using these programs.
EDIT: Our posts crossed there but I think my post explains why you can't edit the registry in a standard user account.

Just interested by why is it so necessary to hide the admin account at the login screen?

I was doing an experiment where i could hide the admin account and use a standard account to use the PC as normal, a bit like working in a office environment and not showing the admin account but without using windows server.

I can see that it's possible to hide the admin account but not found a method where the UAC prompts work normally by asking for the admin password when either installing a program or running a system command.

 

[mitchell65]

Please read this and you will perhaps believe me when keep say that in a standard user account you CANNOT install a program or edit system settings
What is a standard user account?

 

[MourningStar]

... most of the experts here say that with Windows 7 you do not need third party clean up software, that provided within Windows 7 is quite sufficient for most needs. Indeed there is a big raft of opinion that suggests that some of these third party programs especiall registry cleaners do more harm than good. It's always as well to seek expert opinion here before installing and using these programs. ...

sorry for off-topic, but this statement has me puzzled. Where can I find the Windows 7 cleanup software?

Also, I have read posts here recommending CCleaner. It even has it's own sticky in a forum on this site. Is use of this app now discouraged?

-thnx

 

[derekimo]

If I need to have the admin account active, is there a way not to display this at the logon screen ?

There is a very similar discussion in this thread,

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...-administrator-count-normal-logon-screen.html

With a possible solution posted by Brink,

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61650-log-user-name-password.html