What do I do: I can no longer log in or elevate to an administrator account

Under certain circumstances, you may find yourself without the ability to log in as an administrator. Some situations include:

  • You upgraded from Windows XP, and your administrator account is gone or disabled
  • You demoted all administrator accounts to standard users
  • Your administrator account was somehow disabled
  • Your administrator account was hidden from the welcome screen, and you are now unable to use it from inside of your standard user account(s)
  • When attempting to run an administrative utility, you are required to enter the password for a hidden account called "ASP.NET Machine Account"
  • You receive an error when trying to run an administrative program, preventing you from changing system settings and running many programs

In order to fix this problem, you will need to log in to the hidden "Administrator" account that is on your computer. This account will allow you to run administrative programs and change system settings so that you can fix your computer. This will require restarting your computer, so you may wish to print these instructions for your convienence.

Option 1: Try safe mode

  1. Restart your computer
  2. Press F8 before you see the Windows progress bar
  3. When the boot menu appears, choose safe mode
  4. If you are presented with the option to log in to the account named "Administrator", do so. Use this emergency Administrator account to fix your normal administrator account by using the user accounts control panel

    5. If you are not given the option to log in to the hidden "Administrator" account, you will need to use Option 2.

Option 2: The hard way

If you can still log in to your computer as a standard user, you may follow these steps. If you cannot log in to any account on your computer, you will need to use Option 3.

  1. Download the following file and save it to your desktop: enableadmin.exe.
  2. Click on the start orb. Write down your username (the name listed right below your picture on the start menu).
  3. Place your Windows Installation DVD into your DVD drive
  4. Restart your computer
  5. When prompted, press a key on your keyboard to boot from the DVD
  6. Select your language options and click Next (See picture)
  7. Select the option at the bottom to repair your computer (See picture)
  8. Select your Windows installation from the list. Make sure you notate what drive letter it is installed on.
  9. Select the last option from the list to open a Command Prompt (See picture)
  10. Type the drive letter that you notated from step 8, type a colon (:), and then press enter. For example, if your Windows installation was on drive C, you would type 
    C:
  11. Type the following command, and press enter: 
    cd users
  12. Type cd, a space, your username that you wrote down in step 2, and then press enter. For example, if your username is jimmy, you would type 
    cd jimmy
  13. Type the following command, and press enter: 
    cd desktop
  14. Type the following command, and press enter: 
    enableadmin
  15. You should receive a message telling you to restart your computer. Close the command prompt window and click on the 'Restart' button on the window that gives you the list of options.
  16. When your computer restarts, log in with the account named 'Administrator'. Use this emergency Administrator account to fix your normal administrator account by using the user accounts control panel.

Option 3: The really hard way

CAUTION: Improperly modifying the registry can harm your system.

  1. Click on the start orb. Write down your username (the name listed right below your picture on the start menu).
  2. Place your Windows Installation DVD into your DVD drive
  3. Restart your computer
  4. When prompted, press a key on your keyboard to boot from the DVD
  5. Select your language options and click Next (See picture)
  6. Select the option at the bottom to repair your computer (See picture)
  7. Select your Windows installation from the list. Make sure you notate what drive letter it is installed on.
  8. Select the last option from the list to open a Command Prompt (See picture)
  9. Type the following command, and press enter: 
    regedit
  10. On the left, click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
  11. Click the File menu at the top, and then click Load Hive
  12. Click the option on the left to go to "computer"
  13. Double-click on the drive that Windows is installed on (you wrote this drive letter down in step 7)
  14. Double-click on the folder called Windows
  15. Double-click on the folder called System32
  16. Double-click on the folder called Config
  17. Click on the file called SAM and click Open
  18. Type "Target SAM" into the box and click OK
  19. Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
  20. Expand the Target SAM folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
  21. Expand the SAM folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
  22. Expand the Domains folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
  23. Expand the Accounts folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
  24. Expand the Users folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
  25. Click on the folder named 000001F4
  26. Double-click the item in the right called "F"
  27. You are now presented with an editor. You will see two columns: a list of letters and numbers grouped in pairs on the left, with a list of symbols on the right. We will only be using the list of letters and numbers on the left.
  28. Find the spot in the left column that says "11".
  29. Click to the immediate right of the 11, so that the flashing insertion line is to the immediate right of 11
  30. Press backspace to make the 11 disappear
  31. Using the keyboard, type the number 10
    This should change the information in the left column from
    

    02,00,01,00,00,00,00,00,80,8c,d7,b2,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,
00,1f,ea,fd,ad,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,de,ad,60,9b,e9,97,
c7,01,f4,01,00,00,01,02,00,00,11, ...

    

    TO:

    

    02,00,01,00,00,00,00,00,80,8c,d7,b2,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,
00,1f,ea,fd,ad,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,de,ad,60,9b,e9,97,
c7,01,f4,01,00,00,01,02,00,00,10, ...
  32. Click OK
  33. Close regedit
  34. Close the command prompt window and click on the 'Restart' button on the window that gives you the list of options.
  35. When your computer restarts, log in with the account named 'Administrator'. Use this emergency Administrator account to fix your normal administrator account by using the user accounts control panel.

Thanks to Ronnie Vernon, Microsoft MVP, for helping me with this issue.