How do I get administrator privileges on my laptop?

Question

Well it's a bit of a story. My mum bought a Windows XP laptop from work through salary sacrifice, and even though it was all paid off and everything, the laptop's system was still configured for a staff member at a school, not as a completely new laptop. Because of this, even though I have made an administrator's account and should therefore have admin privileges, I do not have full admin rights. I want to restore the laptop to factory settings in order to sell it, but when I run the installation disk, I get a message saying "you must be an administrator to run this application". I have tried running it as an administrator, and that doesn't work. According to Microsoft Support, I need to have the following system rights:

> Back up files and directories
> Modify firmware environment values
> Restore files and directories
> Shut down the system

So it would seem that even though I have an admin account, I do not have these rights. As I said, it is running XP, even though the laptop was built for Vista. I guess the IT people knew that XP is better. I don't think it is relevant, but the laptop has 160GB HDD, 1GB RAM, and Intel Pentium Dual-Core @ 2.33GHZ. Here is a picture of it:

http://www.solution-syswat.com/boutique/F5RLAP238C.jpg

Don't be afraid to talk some complicated computer jargon, because I know a fair bit about computers as I have built a few PCs and fixed several more. But this case has just left me completely stumped.

Also, there isn't the option of asking the original administrator who set up the laptop in the first place, as mum bought it quite a few years back.

So basically I want to know how to become an admin with actual admin privileges, instead of just being some pansy admin with the power to change the desktop background.

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

hi,



follow these steps-



1 Find the My Computer icon on your desktop.

2 Right-click the icon and select Manage. This will bring up the Computer Management window.

3 Expand Local Users and Groups by clicking the + to the left.

4 Click Groups. You will see headings for Administrators, Guests, Power Users, and so on.

5 Double-click on Administrators. This brings up a list of all the administrators on your machine. If you have administrative access to this computer, you should be able to change the settings in this menu.

6 Click on Add to designate a new administrator. This will open a new window.

7 Type in the name of the account you wish to add, and click Check Names. The name should now be underlined. Click OK to close this window and save your settings.

8 Remove an administrator. To remove an administrator, highlight the target account and click the Remove.

If you wish to retain your own administrative rights, make sure not to delete your account from this list.

9 Save your changes. If the settings for your account haven't been changed, there is no need to reboot.

Answer 2

Get Administrator Privileges Windows 8

Answer 3

Get Admin Rights Windows 7

Answer 4

Open an 'elevated' Command Prompt. I hope you know what 'elevated' means.

At the Administrator: Command Prompt box type the following:

net user administrator /active:yes

net user administrator ""



Note that there's nothing between the two quotation marks. It means erase the current password is there is one.



Next, log off from your account and you should now see the real Administrator account. Log on that and do your changes. You may even open another elevated Command Prompt when you are in the administrator account and type the following:

net localgroup administrators loginid /add



The loginid is your user account name. That will make your user account at par with the real admin account. It used to be a Power User only.



EDIT: Well I'm sorry I cannot email you back because you turned it off. But anyway, your problems means you are only a Power User on XP, not an administrator if you cannot 'Run as' administrator the Command Prompt.



In that case, you need to do the STICKY KEYS trick to reveal the real administrator account and then remove its password. Search that method here:

http://4sysops.com/archives/three-ways-to-reset-a-windows-vista-admin-password/



Note that you must get in to a real admin account to run an elevated Command Prompt and do the changes. Make your account a real admin too. Here are other net user commands:



net user Commands:



1. To add new user and a password on local computer

net user newuser_loginid newuser_password /add



2. To disable/Lock a user account

net user loginid /active:no



3. To enable/unlock a user account

net user loginid /active:yes



4. To prevent users from changing their account password

net user loginid /passwordchg:no



5. To allow users to change their password

net user loginid /passwordchg:yes



5. To remove password of a user:

net user loginid ""



or

net user loginid *



6. To set or change password of a user:

net user loginid newpassword



7. To retrieve the settings of a user:

net user loginid





Net LocalGroup Commands:

8. To add or promote an existing user to administrators group:

net localgroup administrators loginid /add



To remove an existing user from administrators group and demote to standard:

net localgroup administrators loginid /delete



9. To add an existing user to Power users group (higher than Standard/Limited but lower than Admin):

net localgroup "Power users" loginid /add



To remove an existing user from Power users group (higher than Standard/Limited but lower than Admin):

net localgroup "Power users" loginid /delete



And please, if you want me to be able to contact you again, enable your email on Y!A.

Answer 5

only if you have the original install disk.