Many people familiar with prior
versions of Windows are curious
what happened to the built-in
Administrator account that was
always created by default. Does this
account still exist, and how can you
access it?
The account is created in Windows
7 or Vista, but since it’s not
enabled you can’t use it. If you are
troubleshooting something that
needs to run as administrator, you
can enable it with a simple
command.
Note: You really shouldn’t use this
account for anything other than
troubleshooting. In fact, you
probably shouldn’t use it at all.
Enable Built-in Administrator
Account
First you’ll need to open a
command prompt in administrator
mode by right-clicking and
choosing “Run as administrator” (or
use the Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcut
from the search box)
Now type the following command:
net user administrator /active:yes
You should see a message that the
command completed successfully.
Log out, and you’ll now see the
Administrator account as a choice.
(Note that the screenshots are
from Vista, but this works on
Windows 7)
You’ll note that there’s no
password for this account, so if
you want to leave it enabled you
should change the password.
Disable Built-in Administrator
Account
Make sure you are logged on as
your regular user account, and
then open an administrator mode
command prompt as above. Type
the following command:
net user administrator /active:no
The administrator account will now
be disabled, and shouldn’t show up
on the login screen anymore.