Solved How I lost, then restored, administrator privileges.

Omegaboot

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I run BOINC, to give my spare processor time to science. I recently (after 8.1 released) decided to complete migration from Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 8, basic edition, because Pro didn't really offer any functions I needed, that I didn't yet have. Or so I thought.

I installed BOINC. Set it up. Reset the computer, to finish up installation. So far so good. Then I decided to change my login settings so I didn't need to enter a password to log in every time. (Run netplwiz, select the account you want to automatically log in every time, uncheck the Users must enter.... checkbox, click apply/ok, enter your password, twice, for confirmation) While doing this, I noticed that my user group wasn't Administrator, but boinc_admins, because for some reason BOINC needs several new user groups to function. I changed to Administrator instead. It asked me to log out then back in, to apply the usergroup change. I did, then noticed that BOINC could not connect (I'll come back to this point later in the story*) because it needed boinc_admins privileges. So I went and changed my user group back. Relogged. But what's this?

While BOINC now connected just fine, I noticed that my User Account Control settings had been reset, to Medium. Apparently any user group besides Administrators is functionally Standard, and needs an administrator account logged in simultaneously, and to enter that admin account password, every time you want to make any account changes. Oops? That was my only account. Thankfully, the Internet didn't need a password. I found a way to enable the hidden Administrator account, by rebooting to safe mode, logging in as Administrator, then enabling it in command-line, then rebooting back to normal and logging in as Administrator there. I found it How do I gain the administrator rights on the computer? - Microsoft Community here. Oh, wait, I'll lose my old account and have to remake a new one?

No! I won't! I found something else as well. While, indeed, the main account is (for some reason) invisible from Administrator, you can still edit user groups. Oh, what's that, Windows 8 Basic doesn't allow the management consoles that affect user groups? Never fear, net localgroup is here! I ran it in CMD, saw the groups (including Administrators and the boinc_ groups), and added my account to Administrators. That worked, I could now log in again! Just for kicks, I added boinc_admins to Administrators as well. Huh. BOINC still can't connect.

Wait, what was that? boinc_admins includes Administrators, but does not include my account? I didn't remove it when I added it to Administrators. Weird. Let me do that. And really, since it included Administrators, it should have had admin privileges in the first place. (Remember I said I'd come back there?*) Fine, I'll add the other boinc_ groups to Administrators, and Administrators to them. NOW it connects. Seriously, what were those guys smoking?

So there's my tale of a rather tense half-hour, crisis averted thanks to Google. I'm normally too lazy to do this much writing, but since I managed to put together a few things that apparently nobody else on Google has, I felt it was my duty, in case anyone else has a similar problem. Or problems.



Oh, about net, it can do lots of nifty things. In your CMD, type net alone, or net with the options it tells you, to see what it can do. Just, to be sure, run CMD in Admin mode.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Home
I wonder if Wenda has BOINC yet?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i7-3770K
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z77 Extreme4
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" 24"
    Hard Drives
    1 TB WD
    PSU
    550w
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