My PC Denies Me Administrator Status!!!!

Quiet_One

There must be a solution....I hope.
I run Windows XP Home OS and my home computer won't allow me to download software (eg itunes) as I'm not the Administrator of my own PC.
It is worth noting that there have been other shared users in the past but I'm the only one with password access now.

Is there a kind and knowledgeable soul out there in MSE land that can help?

John_Gray

What do you see about your account when you go into Control Panel then User Accounts?

Jaffa.

It is relative easy to gain access to one of the administrator accounts that you don't have a password to. Requires you to boot into safe mode, log into the Administrator account, use the control panel to remove the passwords of the other accounts... You get the idea.

Have you looked into re-installing the operating system? Maybe lending an OS disk from someone, after all, who wants to be using an operating system thats been used my loads of people in the past...Right?

Quiet_One

Thanks so much for responding both. Before getting into a re-installation of XP (I do have a disk) can I go step at a time to see if I can correct things?
The User Accounts show only my name and "Limited Account Password Protected" (Next to User Accounts is "Windows Cardspace")No other accounts show.
I'm not sure how to boot up in safe mode...only a newbie at this.
Grateful for your advice.

daveg72

You could try a password recovery tool like Spotmau Password Finder (£35 + 100% recovery rate), or search for a free one (may be much more complicated to use).

odeed

To get to safe mode, press F8 key (keep pressing it several times) at boot, just after the bios screen loads and just as windows starts to boot (it should not matter if you start pressing it straight away but on one occasion I had motherboard which had F8 to select bios setup screen).

Select safe mode, and enter "Administrator" in the dialogue, enter password (though I have seen set ups which had no passwords for the administrator account)

Quiet_One

Thanks Jaffa & Odeed, Can now get safe mode. However, there is no Administrator account showing only my (now) "Limited" account.

If I have to re-install Windows will I lose all my photos, itunes etc????

I'd really appreciate some advice...............:D

sharkie

After booting on the select user screen have you tried pressing contol-alt-delete, then contol-alt-delete a second time. this should ask for a user name and p/w

Get the free psgetsid from sysinternals. On a command prompt (dos box to the oldies) run the psgetsid look for the name that ends with a sid of -500 and that name is the administrators login account, or the renamed administrators account. You can also see the sid account via the registry too.

then there is the sid2user program too instead of psgetsid http://www.ntbugtraq.com/default.aspx?pid=55&did=6