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

 

[vienhtv]

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.

Dear Shawn,

Well noted and tks for your advice, I don't want to re install Window due to it take too much time, can we active the administrator by other way?

looking forward to your advice soon.

Thank you & nice weekend at yours!

 

[vienhtv]

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.

Dear Shawn,

Well noted and tks for your advice, I don't want to re install Window due to it take too much time, can we active the administrator by other way?

looking forward to your advice soon.

Thank you & nice weekend at yours!

Dear Shawn,

Can we change from the standard user to Administrator user?

Tks.

 

[Brink]

Vien,

You would have to be logged on to an administrator account to be able to make those changes.

Do you have any other administrator account on the computer that you can log in to for this?

 

[fabfisc]

Hi,

i've read many comments on how to enable admin account and then set password, but i'm trying to find a better and faster way to do it.

Above all, is there also a way to hide the password in the same script?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Fabrizio

 

[Brink]

Hi,

i've read many comments on how to enable admin account and then set password, but i'm trying to find a better and faster way to do it.

Above all, is there also a way to hide the password in the same script?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Fabrizio

Hello Fabrizio, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I've updated OPTION THREE to add step 3 to help show you how to.

 

[fabfisc]

Hi Brink, and thanks for your faster reply.

I apologize if i forgot to tell it before, but i need a script (better if vbs) to do that as i manage many new notebooks to initialize (for first time) and then enable the admin account.

 

[Brink]

If you like, you could use the same command in a .bat file. You would just need to right click on the .bat file and click on "Run as administrator".

 

[fabfisc]

I will appreciate very much if you could suggest me that way.

Please, can you report here the code for even a .cmd?

Many thanks

 

[Brink]

The code would be the exact same command line used in step 3 of OPTION TWO in this tutorial.

 

[fabfisc]

Yes, but i need to run it as administrator.

Instead, i would double click it and let it make all the job, without errors or asking me password...

 

[Brink]

See: http://www.sevenforums.com/3036855-post266.html

 

[fabfisc]

That's what your link says:

"If you like, you could use the same command in a .bat file. You would just need to right click on the .bat file and click on "Run as administrator"."


:shock:

 

[Pyprohly]

... need a script (better if vbs) to do that as i manage many new notebooks to initialize (for first time) and then enable the admin account.

Hi Fabfisc,

The below batch script will enable the Administrator account if the account is disabled, and vice versa.

@net session >NUL 2>&1||powershell Start-Process '%0' -Verb RunAs>NUL&&exit /b|| exit /b
@net user Administrator|find "active"|find "Yes">NUL&&( net user Administrator /active:no&&echo The Administrator account is now Disabled. )||( net user Administrator /active:yes&&echo The Administrator account is now Enabled. )
@timeout 2 >NUL & rem tsdiscon

And a VBScript translate of the above,

Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
If Not objShell.Run("Net Session",0,True) = 0 Then
	CreateObject("Shell.Application").ShellExecute "WScript.exe", WScript.ScriptFullName,"","RunAs",1
	WScript.Quit
End If

If objShell.Run("cmd /c ""Net User Administrator|Find ""active""|Find ""Yes""""", 0, True) = 0 Then
	objShell.Run "Net User Administrator /Active:No", 0, True
	objShell.Popup "The Administrator account is now Disabled.", 1.5, "Success", 64
Else
	objShell.Run "Net User Administrator /Active:Yes", 0, True
	objShell.Popup "The Administrator account is now Enabled.", 1.5, "Success", 64
End If

rem WScript.Sleep 2000 : objShell.Run "tsdiscon", 0, True

 

[fabfisc]

It seems that when i run both scripts, i receive the same result:

"The Administrator account is now Enabled."

All that even if i see (by typing "net use administrator") the referred value of variable "Enable account" set to "Yes" :shock::shock:

It seems that the second time i run the script it doesn't see the value "Yes"...

 

[fabfisc]

Half solved!

Here is the correct script for the vbs part:

Dim WshShell : set WshShell = Wscript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

If WshShell.Run("cmd /c ""Net User Administrator|Find ""attivo""|Find ""Sì""""", 0, True) = 0 Then
WshShell.Run "Net User Administrator /active:No", 0, True
WshShell.Popup "The Administrator account is now Disabled.", 1.5, "Success", 64
Else
WshShell.Run "Net User Administrator /active:Yes", 0, True
WshShell.Popup "The Administrator account is now Enabled.", 1.5, "Success", 64
End If

Trying to find the right way to do the same via .cmd (for now, it always returns "The Administrator account is now Enabled."

 

[Pyprohly]

Ah. Silly me. I didn't take your country flag into account, Fabfisc.

So here is what the Italian verson for the batch (.bat|.cmd) version of the enable/disable Administrator script would look like.

@net session >NUL 2>&1||powershell Start-Process '%0' -Verb RunAs>NUL&&exit /b|| exit /b
@net user Administrator|find "attivo"|find "Si">NUL&&( net user Administrator /active:no&&echo The Administrator account is now Disabled. )||( net user Administrator /active:yes&&echo The Administrator account is now Enabled. )
@timeout 2 >NUL & rem tsdiscon

By the way, in your VBScript, Fabfisc, you seem to have assigned to a variable retcode but you never use it. Please do something about it, it's making me cringe .

 

[fabfisc]

Yep, i though i removed that line, it was only for test.

I edited and correct it.

Many thanks

 

[thuanphat2015]

Option 1 work Good. No Error

 

[phantom7]

NOTE: This option can be used in all editions of Windows 7.

I tried this on my wife's laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium and it did not work. I don't see "Accessories" in her "all programs" list, but did search for "cmd" and it came up with cmd.exe. I right clicked it and chose run as administrator and the net use command produced an error message instead. Her account is an admin account, but I know she needs an elevated admin account. This just didn't work for her. Any ideas?

TIA,
S

 

[Brink]

Hello S,

Please go ahead and post a screenshot showing the command prompt after running the command to see what it says to see what may be wrong.