Locked out!!

I wanted to use my PC to stream music at a party. I thought I`d be smart and create a temporary account without admin privileges and place some playlists on the desktop. Then I used the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList tweak to hide my account from the login screen. Not realising that this also would disable the account. And of course I need admin privileges to undo the tweak!! Smart huh? So I`m well and truly fudged. Anyone know what I can do? I guess I`ve got to login to the inbuilt administrator account. But how do you do that?

Enable the hidden administrators account, then make your repairs...

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/9650-built-administrator-account-enable-disable-windows-8-a.html

Sorry - forgot to mention that Win 8.1 is installed to a virtual hard disk. So to start up from the installer means the hive cannot be found. I tried using Diskpart attach vdisk to get the vhd mirrored to a drive but some sort of refresh command seems to be needed before the command prompt can see the installation.

If you can mount the virtual hard disk from the installer, there is an easy way to enable the hidden Administrator account.

1. Once mounted, go to C:\Windows\System32, or where your System32 folder is.
2. Rename sethc.exe to sethc.exe.bak.
3. Copy and paste cmd.exe in the same folder, you should get "cmd - Copy.exe".
4. Rename "cmd - Copy.exe" to sethc.exe.
5. Restart your computer normally.
6. On your logon screen, tap Shift five times; a command prompt windows should pop-up.
7. Type in "net user Administrator /active:yes".
7a. You mentioned that you hide your account using RegEdit? You can type in regedit.exe and change it back if you wish.
8. Login and logout of your temporary account.
9. An Administrator account/your account should be there.

Hope this helps.

Awol said:

I tried using Diskpart attach vdisk to get the vhd mirrored to a drive but some sort of refresh command seems to be needed before the command prompt can see the installation.

Click to expand...

I don't understand the last statement.

1. Once you boot into the recovery environment and open the command prompt, you should determine the drive letter on which your VHD resides (tip: open notepad in command prompt and press Ctrl+O to see it in GUI),

2. Then go with:

• "F:\win8.vhd" is the path to VHD you've determined during step 1
• X is the VHD disk number as shown in list disk
• Y is the partition number with your windows installation on VHD as shown in list par
• W - is the letter you assign to the partition

Then exit diskpart, type regedit and proceed with the instructions I linked to.

Many thanks for your suggestions and further advice (both respondents). I'll try them out when I get a chance and let you know how it went.

Success

I'm back in and have reenabled my account. Many thanks