Vista - Enabling the Administrator Account
Unable to find the Administrator account? We show you how...
Unlike previous versions of Windows, Vista really goes out of its way to stop you accessing the administrator account. In many cases this is no real problem and you can still run programs with admin privileges by right clicking on them and selecting 'Run as Administrator'. There are however good reasons for Vista keeping you out of this all powerful account. It's all too easy to use it for everything leaving you open to attack by the usual suspects such as trojans and malicious web sites.
However, sometimes it really is useful for power users to have full access to the system so despite the user interface offering no obvious way to use it, it is still there.
Registry Editing
Before we go any further, we really only recommend accessing the Administrator account if you really know what you're doing.
Click on Start then enter regedit and click on 'Continue' to access Regedit. Now navigate to the following key:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
You can add the Administrator account to the logon screen by doing the following:
1. Create a subkey called SpecialAccounts
2. Create a subkey inside SpecialAccounts called UserList
3. Inside SpecialAccounts create a DWORD value called Administrator and set its value to 1.
Alternatively, you can use this method:
1. Click on Start then select the Command Prompt menu item from the Accessories menu
2. Right-click on the Command Prompt menu item and select Run as Administrator
3. Click the Continue button when prompted
4. At the command prompt, enter net user administrator password (replace password with your choice) and hit Enter
5. Now enter net user administrator /active:yes, and hit Enter
6. Enter exit and hit Enter to close the window
7. Now log off and logon as Administrator using the password you entered above.
Automating Logon
Somewhat more drastically, you can set Vista to automatically log on as Administrator or indeed any other account by doing the following. We wouldn't recommend this unless you are the only person with access to the PC.
As before, start at:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
1. Double-click on AutoAdminLogon and change its value to 1
2. Double-click on DefaultUserName and change the value to the username you want (in this case, Administrator)
3. Create a string value called DefaultPassword and set this to the password of the account set up above.
We can't stress enough though that just because you're used to doing everything as Administrator under XP or earlier, that's not a reason to do it under Vista. Keep it for those occassions when you really need it!
