8.1 pro Unable to open as administrator

My daughter borrowed my dell latitude 7350 and added her user account now I cannot sign in as administrator . When I try to change account type a popup window


Note that I'm unable to change anything because I can't even select an Administrator account or password.

Hi dane5547

It seems you need to have a talk with your daughter and ask her what the H-E-DoubleHockeySticks she did, if the problem arose AFTER she monkeyed with your system.

Why didn't you create the account for her?

The picks you post are after log in, what is it you're met with when the system first boots up - the log in screen? How is this different from the way it was before she created her account? Is your admin account available to log in? What happens after 3 failed log in attempts? The question is then why/how did the admin account change, and who did it?

Did she make her account the new admin account and change your account by accident?

Check the forum main page inder Tutorials, scroll down to P for Password.

You might be able to refresh your system and put it back to a state before the new account was added. If you can get this done, you're the admin, you should be the one who adds/removes accounts - for next time I suppose

Oh, BTW, if you've never done it, once you get your system squared away - make a full system backup and put it away for safe-keeping. Windows can do this for you for free, so can Macrium Reflect Free.

Please let the forum know how this works out for you, and don't be afraid to ask more questions, or the same questions.

dane5547 said:

Note that I'm unable to change anything because I can't even select an Administrator account or password.

Click to expand...

MGhee said:

Did she make her account the new admin account and change your account by accident?

Click to expand...

Welcome to Eight Forums dane5547

No, it's far worse than that. The 'Yes' button in the UAC screenshot is greyed out and you are not offered the choice of any other administrator account to use. That means that there are NO administrator accounts available on this PC. If there were any other administrators available the UAC would list them and ask for their password.



She must have changed your account to a standard user in error, probably while trying to make herself an administrator.

To fix this and make your account and administrator again you need to be able to sign in as an administrator. You could enable the built-in Administrator account and use that, either sign in as Administrator or use it in the UAC prompt. By default Administrator has no password. You'll need to use Option Two. For security, disable the built-in Administrator once you are back to normal, by default Administrator is disabled.

Hi Bree

Thanks for the clarification with regard to dane5547's issue, I truely hope it gets squared away.

Wonderin', would having a full system backup from prior to a change of this nature (account status, credentials, etc) also be a possible resolution? Is there a case in which a password/account related issue like this one not be fixed by applying a prior known good copy of a system?

I began to wonder about a forgotten hdd password as an example, would a user be able to apply a known good backup onto a password protected hdd/ssd? I don't have a lot of experience with these issues, but I'm guessing (without any true knowledge) the password is stored within the OS, say versus a BIOS stored password?

I hope I made sense, if not feel free to ignore

MGhee said:

would having a full system backup from prior to a change of this nature (account status, credentials, etc) also be a possible resolution?

Click to expand...

Yes. Restoring a system image made before the changes would resolve the issue, putting the PC back to exactly how it was at the time the image was made. It is always a sensible precaution to make regular system images with something like Macrium Reflect Free.

Going back to a Restore Point could also work if the restore point was from before the change, but that of course would require an administrator account to be able to do it.