This guide shows you how to enable and log on to Windows Vista with the Administrator account.
If for whatever reason you must login Windows Vista with the Administrator account this guide will show you how it’s done.
Note: If you’re trying to stop User Account Control (UAC) popups when you change settings or install software you should try disabling User Account Control before logging in as Administrator.
Warning: Running as Administrator in Windows Vista bypasses all security (UAC) and is NOT recommended. If you decide to use the Administrator account don’t complain when you start having problems.
Enable the Administrator Account
- Open the command prompt with Administrative privileges by opening the Start Menu, and typing cmd in the search box, and then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter or click the Start orb, All Programs, Accessories, right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
- Type the following in the command prompt and press Enter after:
net user administrator /active:yes - Restart your computer and logon as Administrator.
Note: You might want to set a password for the administrator’s account for at least a little protection.
Disable the Administrative Account
To disable the Administrative account run the Net User command demonstrated above while logged on an account with administrative privileges but not as the Administrator account and replace yes with no.
By Paul Marga on July 4th, 2007 at 3:45 am #
Thanks a lot for your hint, saved me a lot of trouble. I am still amazed what Microsoft did with this admin account, which is actually needed by some applications.
By iNNdrit on November 24th, 2007 at 8:37 am #
Thankkks a lott man u r tha best ;)
By Paul on December 27th, 2007 at 11:30 am #
This does not work what a hoax.
By Brent Trahan on December 27th, 2007 at 12:00 pm #
@Paul If you’re having a problem, try asking for help next time instead of trying to discredit this guide.
I’ll be more than happy to help you out Paul.
By Achakru on January 2nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm #
This article was clearly explained and was very useful wen cracking into my friends system (in front of him to show off ;)) Thank you very much
By luka on January 3rd, 2008 at 10:01 am #
i do not understand the ctrl+shift+enter it doesnt work to open can u explain it more clearly like do i have to select it first then do it or what
By Brent Trahan on January 3rd, 2008 at 10:09 am #
Type cmd in the Start Menu’s search box and then press and hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard. While holding down the Ctrl key press the Shift key. While holding down both Ctrl and Shift keys press the Enter key (Ctrl+Shift+Enter).
By Rob on January 4th, 2008 at 2:18 pm #
How do you set a password?
By Brent Trahan on January 4th, 2008 at 2:30 pm #
@Rob http://www.maximumpcguides.com/create-a-new-user-in-windows-vista/
It shows you how to set a password halfway down the guide.
By stan on January 9th, 2008 at 4:28 pm #
Don’t know what that dude PAUL is complaining about. Worked on the 1st try for me.
Thanks!
By dez on January 14th, 2008 at 6:51 pm #
another way for admin prompt
type cmd (right click it)
open as administrator
follow above as required.
the above works indeed, as ive just done it, and
ive got whitnesses lol
but this method is for the less button pressing alternative.
good tutorial
p.s paul? if this is ur site id just delete the post
as they clearly dont follow instructions and become
moronic user afterwards.
aka (him: it doesnt work you:how? him:i dunno…)
laters
By Bob on January 15th, 2008 at 12:31 am #
Worked like a charm. Thanks!
By moe on January 18th, 2008 at 11:47 pm #
im trying to get into administrator just so i could download something, apparently im not administrator im im affraid that its goin to ruin my computer if i try this out.
what kind of problems could you get?
By Brent Trahan on January 21st, 2008 at 7:44 am #
Do you need administrative rights to download and install software? You can give your user account admin rights by following this guide:
http://www.maximumpcguides.com/add-or-remove-administrative-rights/
Enabling the ability to log on as Administrator won’t hurt anything. Once you’re logged on as Administrator all protection like UAC is disabled leaving your computer wide open.
By marius on January 25th, 2008 at 5:22 am #
Man!!! This is a nice move i appreciate the hint it save my day. May i have your mail for more discussions.
By Steve on January 25th, 2008 at 11:10 am #
Is there someway to hide the admin account like on windows xp. On windows xp pro you type ctrl+alt+delete two times and you can then type in the administrator account, but it’s not a button on the login screen. That’s how I want it on my vista machine.
Thanks.
By Tyler on February 8th, 2008 at 10:08 pm #
Does this only work with a certain version of Vista? I have home premium and it still says access denied when i try to enable… I’m new to vista, but i’ve been around microsoft and previous versions for a long time.. thanks.
By Brent Trahan on February 9th, 2008 at 6:02 am #
This does work on home premium.
It might not be working because you’re not opening the command prompt with admin rights.
By ViPo on February 25th, 2008 at 7:45 am #
i have a problem… i can’t open the prompt with adminn rights.
the ctrl+shift+enter combo doesn’t work and the right-click->”open as admin..” doesn’t work.
do i have to be on an admin account to do this?
By Brent Trahan on February 25th, 2008 at 8:02 am #
No, but it will ask you for the password of an account with admin rights in order for those admin rights to be temporarily passed to your account.
If you don’t know the password you’re out of luck.
By DizzyX on February 27th, 2008 at 7:37 am #
Hi guys, i opened the cmd fine…but when i go to type in and hit enter it says *System error 5 has occurred.* * Access is Denied* :(:(:(, can someone PLEASE help me?!, i don’t get why it wont work…i am typing it in correctly.
By Brent Trahan on February 27th, 2008 at 8:04 am #
Did you run CMD as Administrator?
By DizzyX on February 27th, 2008 at 10:14 am #
yes i did :/
By DizzyX on February 27th, 2008 at 10:21 am #
When i do the above instructions, i get that error *System error 5 has occurred.* * Access is Denied*…even when i restart still says the same.
By Brent Trahan on February 27th, 2008 at 10:29 am #
You might have a firewall issue, or the Admin account is already enabled.
This might help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555644
By Steven Hertz on February 28th, 2008 at 6:22 pm #
great post…looked all over got bad info or info that only worked in vista ultimate. worked like a charm first time in home premium.
By Rich Gehring on March 8th, 2008 at 3:40 pm #
I was able to log-on as adminstrator but I still can’t delete the user folder (costco majors). This is an hp portable purchased at Costco. I deleted all the files in the folder but can’t delete the actual folder.
By Joanne on March 17th, 2008 at 2:44 am #
i’m locked out of my vista laptop already.. somehow someone managed to tap into my laptop and changed the password with me knowing.. ideas?
By Brent Trahan on March 17th, 2008 at 5:59 am #
Try this:
http://www.maximumpcguides.com/reset-a-forgotten-administrative-user-account-password-in-windows-vista/
By Brian on March 19th, 2008 at 10:32 pm #
This worked so perfect and fast!! Thanks A Lot. In other words you can break into anyones vista system just by using the provided net user ad in the Dos command and being logged in as a only a guest? WTF?
By Brent Trahan on March 20th, 2008 at 6:54 am #
@ Brian: No. It’s not that easy. If you would have read the guide you would have read that you need to be logged in as a user with administrative rights to enable or disable the admin account.
Enabling and disabling the Administrator account is nothing new. This has been available in numerous previous versions of Windows. The only difference is that Vista is the first client version of Windows with the Administrator account disabled by default.
By Brian on March 20th, 2008 at 9:30 pm #
Thanks Brent. I had already discovered my error after writing my post. This did work for me and I was able to delete files installed from a program I downloaded that was not Vista compatible. I was unable to do this from my own acct. So is there any way to change my named account to an admin account ( I have only one account on my computer) and if not what is the reason for this? This is a bit confusing!! Again Thanks for your help!!!!!!
By Kid on March 26th, 2008 at 9:36 pm #
Very Useful, but in reality the reboot/restart is not needed. All that you have to do is Switch users or Log off of the currently logged in account. Pressing Windows+L will allow you to switch users.
By hendra on March 30th, 2008 at 11:49 pm #
anybody have a problem about login 2 administrator Win vista?
cause i was success login it, and shown administrator while log on. I am used vista home basic.
By Pops on March 31st, 2008 at 6:38 pm #
It worked when I navigated to \Windows\System32 and right clicked on CMD(.exe) and chose Run as administrator. Then the net user command shown at the top worked.
By Bobulon on March 31st, 2008 at 6:39 pm #
Doesn’t work for me either. Putting ‘cmd’ into search results in nothing?
By amitesh kumar sinha on April 5th, 2008 at 6:15 am #
Thanks for help.Through your help I am able to logon with administrator account
By phebe on April 10th, 2008 at 6:28 am #
Easy instructions to follow. I found that it is important to follow the instructions of how to access CMD line in the original post. Windows key+R and then type “cmd” in Run box gets you to a different path (C:/User/username vs C:/Windows/system32). The first path leads to failure. The second, and correct one, leads to success.
By kenny on April 22nd, 2008 at 12:48 am #
you must first disable the UAC. Then only go to the command prompt and type in “net user administrator /active:yes”. Then restart your machine. The “administrator” will automatically appear.
By Brent Trahan on April 22nd, 2008 at 4:43 am #
You DO NOT have to disable UAC to enable the Admin account. You have to open the command prompt with admin privileges though.
By Dan on April 22nd, 2008 at 10:44 am #
Wtf when I do the:net user administrator /active:yes. to windows system32 it just says: username can’t be found ftw??? please help me. I really need to log in as administrator.
By Dan on April 22nd, 2008 at 11:17 am #
I even copied the net user text and attached it to commandprompt please help me :( not fun.
By Brent Trahan on April 22nd, 2008 at 12:02 pm #
What version of Windows are you using?
By Me on April 26th, 2008 at 10:12 am #
Beware that if UAC is turned off you will not be asked for credentials or permission when trying to run as administrator, and therefore the above will not work. It happenned to me and it took me a little while to figure it out - I have UAC turned off as the pop-ups are too annoying. I was able to active the administrator account when logged in with a logon that has administrator privileges alright, but when tried to log in as “guest” and tried the above, didn’t work because of the UAC being turned off. Hope this helps.
By Steve on May 6th, 2008 at 1:27 am #
I have a problem in that I have no active users with Administrator rights, so cannot enable UAC or active the Administrator account. Any advice?
By Steve on May 6th, 2008 at 8:29 am #
Steve adds:
Sorry - Further to above: The user which DID have Admin rights was demoted to Power User (as a security measure!) This was before I found out that the default Administrator was disabled. There seems to be no way back!
By Dan on May 10th, 2008 at 10:12 am #
Can someone here still help me please, I already posted my problem I’m using Windows Vista Home Premium.
By Harris on May 28th, 2008 at 9:26 am #
I have tried your solution on installing software on Vista 64 bit. But I am still having an issue. I am admin of my laptop(the only user) for some reason Vista will not let me install software or delete files. I have to take ownership of my hard drive (c:\)everytime that i want to install or delete a file or folder, and when I connect any USB external hard drive i have to do the same thing to it. then once I reboot its find until the next time I turn it back on. I never had this problem until I hard drive crash when vista went into Hibernation mode adn then blue screen on me. I hae blow away the partition and install fresh copy Vista. Anys idea before I call and get a new hard drive?
thank you in advance
harris
By Sreejith on June 6th, 2008 at 10:49 am #
thanks dude now i can enter in to administrator….
By Philip on July 18th, 2008 at 11:33 am #
I was able to do all this above and reboot.
But I dont see the username “administrator” after I reboot and I am back in my username called “philip” account.
Where is the administrator profile? “philip” is the administrator
I was going to use this to delete a file, but after I log in, the files are gone. I went to task manager is to see what has a grip on that file and I cannot find it under the “command line” column.
This Vista x64 thing is crab! The only reason why I am still in Vista is because I got a 8 GB memory!
By Phil on August 6th, 2008 at 11:48 pm #
Not working for me, it says
< the syntax of this command is:
NET USER
[username [password : *] [options]] [/domain]
username /add [options\] [domain]
username [/delete] [/domain]
username [/times:]
>>
Help?
By Umaga on August 13th, 2008 at 5:45 am #
@Phil
I had the same thing. Was a syntax error.
Dont forget the space between “administrator” and “/”
>> net user administrator /active:yes
Good luck
By mike on August 13th, 2008 at 1:18 pm #
Hi,
Im trying to delete a file in the system32 folder.
Ive logged in as administrator but it still says access denied when i try to delete.
suggestions?
vista premium.
By Lokesh on September 28th, 2008 at 11:54 pm #
oh my god.. u saved me… a lots n lots of cost .. n time… god bless u..thankx
By Ken on October 26th, 2008 at 1:51 am #
you are the best!
much thanks :)
By Greg on October 27th, 2008 at 4:52 pm #
Hi. I have been trying to update windows and I am told I must run as administrator to do this. I am worried about the caution about leaving your computer wide open. What kind of risk is there in this?
Sorry - I’m very new to this.
many thanks.
By Front on October 30th, 2008 at 10:45 pm #
The problem for me is I was administrator and one day my account changed to a guest. I have no way of turning off UAC. When UAC pops up the is no box for entering a password and no “continue” button. I can turn off UAC without administrative privileges and I have no way to get them back. I can’t run anything as administrator so I can’t use the command prompt methods either. So I guess it is really a problem with UAC. Is there a way to fix this.
By v b on November 1st, 2008 at 4:38 pm #
this does not work
By A on November 10th, 2008 at 10:24 pm #
Reason you get an error might be:
net user administrator /active:yes didn`t work =Error
but net user administrator/active:yes did work,no gap before slash!
Might help.
By mcgyver on November 14th, 2008 at 9:59 am #
This worked great, thank you
Hey Paul…I think you need to switch back to OS/2 warp or something
By floydthecat on November 14th, 2008 at 5:51 pm #
A nice little piece of free software called “Unlocker” will also delete a folder upon rebooting your computer. Right click, select “unlock”. You will get a message stating that there was no locking handle found, what would you like to do with the folder? Choose “delete”. You will be told that it can not delete the folder at this time, would you like to delete on the next reboot? Choose “yes”, reboot your computer, folder gone, bang done.
By mill on November 16th, 2008 at 5:47 pm #
I have enabled vista “administrator” account and it will automatically appears on login.
But when i login as administrator I still seem not to have all admin privilages. I cannot delete nor save new files in most directories, except /user.
For example I can not delete nor save new file in WWWRoot directory creted by IIS7. Now it appears as if i don’t have administrator privilages. I’ve got message: not proper folder permissions.
soemone have idea how to solve this problem with admin foledr permissions>
thank you
chris
By Silvestre on November 17th, 2008 at 1:30 pm #
i have been having problems learning with my vista computer system. but the biggest challenge is for my causin that barelly knows how to use a computer at all. i have manage in the past to help remotelly to other poeple, but this time it has been challenging because i am needing IP address which i have an network name. i do not know how to tell my causin to find that for me..
Any advices with this to remote?
By Bryan on November 28th, 2008 at 6:15 pm #
Hi I have the same question as Steve about hiding an adminstrative account I know how to hide a regular user account but the adminstrative account doesnt seem to hide. I have read about it and it says that it wont hide cuz of some settings but it doesnt say if it can be hidden. Even if u knew how to bring up a login window on the login screen so i can manually enter name in password thatwould be helpful. On win xp u just hit Cntrl+Alt+Del 2 times and it pops up. Is there a way to do this on Win Vista.
By Fernando on November 30th, 2008 at 8:18 am #
here’s what some people are having problem and none is understanding.
when you iinstall VIsta you are the ADMIMnistrator-BUT if you dont create a password, and then you try to create another user(for your WIFE specially) but of course you wanna take the ADMINISTRATOR previleges OUT,then you are demoting the only ADIMINISTRator in the system. because you dont have a password, anything you try to do is gonna have that box to put the password but the OK BUTTON is GRAY…
and all these stuff with CMD bla blabla /active:yes, will NOT work.
WHat worked (and this is crazy) I used the UNLOCKER idea but without any software, tryed to erase the Mydocuments of the only user inthe system, and the computer FROZE. Then i did a FORCED reestart, and FINAALLY the ADMNINISTRATOr account appeared on the LOGGIN, and i could do all the changes ….UFFA
By Del on December 6th, 2008 at 8:59 am #
I now have the Admin account showing but it wants a password. I have never created a password for the Admin account and leaving it blank leads to an Access Denied message.
Am I missing something?
By Yvette on December 19th, 2008 at 11:52 am #
Hello,
I tried your tutorial but I got “user name could not be found”. Any help would be appreciated. i just want to remove some viral files but keeps saying i need permission.
Thanks
By Doug on December 24th, 2008 at 8:31 pm #
Thanks. Very helpful and it worked for me. When you get to Command Prompt be sure you right-click or you’ll get the “Error 5″ message.
By Sander on December 29th, 2008 at 6:17 am #
Hi! I’m having this very strange problem with my windows vista. Every time I login with my account a bluescreen appears. Then my pc restarts perfectly fine, I login again, everything works very well but after 5 seconds I get the same bluescreen again, and so on…
So I tried to login with my administrator account and the same problem persists!
By BJ on January 1st, 2009 at 2:19 am #
Hi
but it can not work with Vista Ultimate , please help me how it is possible logon windows vista Ultimate as administors, my partner locked my laptop .
By Laura on January 2nd, 2009 at 9:47 am #
Brilliant tutorial, thanks, saved me a lot of time.
By clayton on January 5th, 2009 at 10:05 pm #
I’ve tried this for the second time now, but without success. I’m sure I ran as administrator, I typed it in right, but when I restart or switch users, it only shows my current account. I can’t find anywhere or anything that would let me log on as administrator. Advice please?