Built-in Administrator Account - Enable or Disable

How to Enable or Disable the Built-in Elevated Administrator Account in Windows 7​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the built-in elevated Administrator account in Windows 7.

You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the options in this tutorial.

   Note

Standard user (Users) - The standard account is an unelevated restricted users account. It can help protect your computer by preventing users from making changes that affect everyone who uses the computer, such as deleting files that are required for the computer to work. It is recommend to create a standard account for each user instead of an administrator account for the user. When you are logged on to Windows with a standard account, you can do almost anything that you can do with an administrator account, but if a standard user wanted to do something that requires elevated rights that affects other users of the computer, such as installing software or changing security settings, Windows will give the standard user a UAC prompt to enter the password of an administrator account for approval and confirmation before allowing the action.

administrator user - Is an unelevated administrator account that is created by default during the installation of Windows 7, or is already setup or you on a OEM (ex: Dell) computer. An administrator account has complete access to the computer, and can make any desired changes. To help make the computer more secure, this administrator account type will be prompted by UAC by default to give confirmation before allowed to make any changes that require elevated administrator rights. Such as those that affect the system, other users, or when running anything elevated (Run as Administrator) since running elevated will allow it to have access to the entire computer.

Built-in "Administrator" - Is the hidden elevated administrator account that has full unrestricted access rights and permission on the computer. By default, this elevated "Administrator" account is not prompted by UAC by default to provide confirmation before allowed to make any changes that require elevated administrator permissions since it is an elevated account.

   Warning

If you enable the built-in Administrator account, then it is recommended to create a password for better security.

For additional security purposes, it is also not recommended to leave the built-in Administrator account always enabled, or to use it for everyday purposes.

:note: For the updated Windows 10 tutorial, please see here: Administrator account - Enable or Disable in Windows 10 - Windows 10 User Accounts Tutorials

OPTION ONE

Enable built-in Administrator in Local Users and Groups

NOTE: This option will only be available in the Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions.
1. Open the Local Users and Groups manager.

2. In the left pane, click on the Users folder. (See screenshot below step 3)

3. In the middle pane, right click on Administrator and click on Properties. (See screenshot below)

4. To Enable the Built-in Elevated Administrator Account
A) Uncheck the Account is disabled box. (See screenshot below step 6)

B) Go to step 6.
5. To Disable the Built-in Elevated Administrator Account
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Check the Account is disabled box. (See screenshot below step 6)
6. Click on OK. (See screenshot below)

7. Close the Local Users and Groups window. (See screenshot below step 3)

8. Log off, and you will now see the built-in Administrator account log on icon added (enabled) or removed (disabled) from the log on screen. (See screeenshot below)
NOTE: Click on the Administrator icon to log on to the built-in Administrator account.

OPTION TWO

Enable built-in Administrator in an Elevated Command Prompt

NOTE: This option can be used in all editions of Windows 7. If your Windows 7 uses another language than English, then you may need to translate the word administrator part of the commands below to your language to use instead.
1. Open an elevated command prompt, and do step 2, 3, or 4 below for what you want to do.

2. To Enable the Hidden Built-in Elevated Administrator Account
A) In the elevated command prompt, copy and paste the command below and press Enter, and go to step 5 below. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If you had previously renamed the built-in "Administrator" account's name, then you will need to substitute administrator in the command below with the new name instead.
net user administrator /active:yes


3. To Enable the Hidden Built-in Elevated Administrator Account with Password
A) In the elevated command prompt, copy and paste the command below and press Enter, and go to step 5 below. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If you had previously renamed the built-in "Administrator" account's name, then you will need to substitute administrator in the command below with the new name instead.
net user administrator password /active:yes

   Note

Substitute password in the command above with the password you want to use to log on to the built-in Administrator account.

4. To Disable the Hidden Built-in Elevated Administrator Account
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) In the elevated command prompt, copy and paste the command below and press Enter, and go to step 5 below. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If you had previously renamed the built-in "Administrator" account's name, then you will need to substitute administrator in the command below with the new name instead.
net user administrator /active:no


5. Close the elevated command prompt.

6. Log off, and you will now see the built-in Administrator account log on icon added (enabled) or removed (disabled) from the log on screen. (See screeenshot below)
NOTE: Click on the Administrator icon to log on to the built-in Administrator account.

OPTION THREE

Enable built-in Administrator in Local Security Policy

NOTE: This option will only be available in the Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions.
1. Open the Local Security Policy editor.

2. In the left pane, expand Local Policies, and click on Security Options. (See screenshot below)

3. In the right pane, right click on Accounts: Administrator account status and click on Properties. (See screenshot above)

4. To Enable the Hidden Built-in Elevated Administrator Account
A) Select (dot) Enabled. (See screenshot below step 6)

B) Go to step 6.
5. To Disable the Hidden Built-in Elevated Administrator Account
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Select (dot) Disabled. (See screenshot below step 6)
6. Click on OK. (See screenshot below)

7. Close the Local Security Policy window. (See screenshot below step 2)

8. Log off, and you will now see the built-in Administrator account log on icon added (enabled) or removed (disabled) from the log on screen. (See screeenshot below)
NOTE: Click on the Administrator icon to log on to the built-in Administrator account.

OPTION FOUR

Enable built-in Administrator from System Recovery (WinRE) at Boot

1. For how, see: How to Enable the Built-in Administrator Account from WinRE
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Rename the Windows 7 Built-in Administrator Account
• How to Elevate All Administrator Accounts UAC Privilege Level
• How to Create a User Account in Windows 7
• How to Delete a User Account in Windows 7
• How to Create a Password for a Windows 7 User Account
• How to Turn the Guest Account On or Off in Windows 7
• How to Enable the Built-in Administrator Account from WinRE
• How to Change a User Account Type in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable a User Account in Windows 7
• How to Enable the Built-in Administrator Account in Windows XP Mode
• How to Reset User Profile of Built-in Administrator Account to Default in Windows
• Enable or Disable User Account Control (UAC) Prompt for Built-in Administrator in Windows

 

[Brink]

Ramos,

Yep, it still works in Windows 7 as well.

Q1) Correct. Elevating administrator accounts makes them the same as the built-in Administrator.

Q2) UAC prompt is used to get your permission to allow running or opening something that requires elevated rights.

"Open File Security Warning" is used to get your permission to allow running or opening something that was copied or downloaded from an external source.

UAC and "Open File..." are not related.

 

[Odd Ramos]

Thanks for making a clear distinction between UAC and Open File Security Warning.

In this link:
User Account Control (UAC) - Elevate Privilege Level

Elevate_Administrator_Privilege.reg looks like:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin"=dword:00000000

In this link:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/299-user-account-control-uac-change-notification-settings.html

UAC_Level-4_Disable.reg looks like:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin"=dword:00000000
"EnableLUA"=dword:00000000
"PromptOnSecureDesktop"=dword:00000000

So basically, both of these links do the same: your regular administrator account won't be prompted by UAC and become fully elevated as built-in administrator account. However, "ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin"=dword:00000000 just removes the UAC popup prompts, but "EnableLUA"=dword:00000000 disables UAC entirely.

1. Does running UAC_Level-4_Disable.reg adds more privileges and elevation to your regular administrator account and reduces security more than running Elevate_Administrator_Privilege.reg?

2. What's the practical difference between these two registry modifications?

 

[Brink]

Correct. Those two .reg files basically do the same thing since you must elevate in order to completely disable UAC.

 

[Odd Ramos]

The practical difference between Elevate_Administrator_Privilege.reg and UAC_Level-4_Disable.reg is that with Elevate_Administrator_Privilege.reg you wouldn't have regular UAC prompts, but you would still have to manually choose to run programs as Administrator, e.g. run cmd as administrator in order to make some changes.

With UAC_Level-4_Disable.reg you wouldn't have regular UAC prompts and also wouldn't have to manually choose to run programs as Administrator, because programs would be run as administrator always by default.

Now this sounds to me as being the real Administrator

Thanks for support, Shawn.

 

[alberto0255]

Disabled account Administrator

Have you logged out of the built-in Administrator account, logged into your LioSeven administrator acccount, then try to disabled the built-in Administrator account using step 2 in OPTION TWO of the tutorial?

RUN CMD run as administrator (THIS IS IMPORTANT)

I'm logged in my usual account LioSeven where I'm administrator and I have this reply if I use Command Prompt

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\LioSeven>net user administrator /active:yes
System error 5 has occurred.

Access is denied. (comom run it without administrator)


C:\Users\LioSeven>

So, ANOTHER ERROR


OPS I see only now that I was not In the elevated Command Prompt, I try again

 

[hannelius]

i don't want to go through all this just to use my own computer...
i don't want a button on my log on screen...
i just want to use it without it yelling at me
and telling me i can't do it....

 

[Brink]

i don't want to go through all this just to use my own computer...
i don't want a button on my log on screen...
i just want to use it without it yelling at me
and telling me i can't do it....

Then enable the built-in Administrator, and log in to it to have what you wanted.

 

[hannelius]

in control panel/user accounts (windows 7)
it says my account type is
OWNER Administrator

it also says "Administrators have complete access to the computer and can make any desired changes"
it says that's what i am...

but it also says "based on notification settings, administrators may be asked to provide their password or confirmation before making changes that affect other users"

what are these notification settings, do you know?

it yells at me for things so simple as changing a path on a shortcut when i move a folder
and it puts locks on all my zip files (compressed folders that windows makes) when i make them

is there an easier thing i can do, where all these settings are stored?

 

[Brink]

Your administrator account is not elevated. That's why you get a UAC prompt to approve whenever you try to "Run as Administrator" that require elevated rights.

The built-in "Administrator" account is an elevated account that has full rights.

Other than enabling and using the built-in "Administrator account as per the tutorial on the first page, you could use the tutorial below to elevate all administrator accounts so that they will have the same rights as the built-in "Administrator".

User Account Control (UAC) - Elevate Privilege Level

 

[SXBTiger]

Nothing Works

None of these options seem to work on Win 7 Home Premium. I am trying to solve this silly but very serious bug in Windows/IE11 - my LAN settings keep reverting back to - "Use Proxy Server' - it sometimes happens on every click (sometimes less frequent). Highly annoying impossible to work problem.

 

[Brink]

None of these options seem to work on Win 7 Home Premium. I am trying to solve this silly but very serious bug in Windows/IE11 - my LAN settings keep reverting back to - "Use Proxy Server' - it sometimes happens on every click (sometimes less frequent). Highly annoying impossible to work problem.

Hello SXBTiger, and welcome to Seven Forums.

What happens when you try to enable the built-in Administrator?

Any error messages?

 

[SXBTiger]

Options not available on Home Premium

The enabling GUI is not available on Home Premium, and on the cmd prompt - it gives error.

This whole thing is serious bug, virus whatever- to begin with the problem should not happen, and teh default admin should be bale to do things without any additional privilege, lastly the options should be available on all versions.

So the usual problem somebody got just about everything wrong.

 

[Brink]

What is the full error message that it gives you when you try to enable it in an elevated command promt in OPTION TWO?

Are you logged in to an administrator account when trying this?

Please go ahead and post a screenshot of this to see if it may help reveal the issue.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[SXBTiger]

Yes I am the admin.

C:\Users\Sanjay>net user administrator /active:yes
System error 5 has occurred.

Access is denied.

 

[Brink]

It sounds like you may not have opened an elevated command prompt to run the command in.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

 

[SXBTiger]

OK, now I get success. Thanks for that.
Let me see if I an make my problem go away.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.

 

[Dave009]

Perfect Resource just when I needed it.

Thansk for the in depth and carefully worded instructions this went off with out a hitch.

 

[vienhtv]

Dear Shawn,

I have a problem but don't know how to solve it

I am suing the window 7 Ultimate 32 bit.

in previous, I have both the administrator and user when I log in laptop, but I have disable the administrators in last week, now I enable it but can not.

it show below sentence "the following error occurred while attempting to save properties for use Administrator : Access is denied", when clear the check account is disable.

Pls advise & help me to enable the previous administrator when I start my laptop.

Thank you in advance.

Vien

 

[Brink]

Hello Vien, and welcome to Seven Forums.

That error means that you are not currently logged in to an administrator account that would have the access rights to perform that action. A standard user does not have the access rights for that.

If you do not have access to any administrator accounts, then you may need to reinstall Windows.