Hi all,

Hopefully someone here can give some advice.

Some background story.

I am having problems updating Windows (automatic and manual).

For the Automatic updates I am already having contact with the MS helpdesk

and they are trying to solve it.

The problem however is when I want to install the manually downloaded updates.

I had Administrator rights and even then sometimes I got an error message telling me I do not have

the permission to install as I have no Admin rights.

Found it a bit strange so I checked again my account and clearly had Admin rights.

OK so I thought I had a clever idea and changed my account from Admin to debuggers thinking

that would have same rights as Admin.

And I was wrong..........

I cannot install anything anymore, cannot change start up setting, Services etc. well you know I guess.

Is there a way to give me Admin rights again?

Because now when I want to change my account settings I need to type in the Admin password which I do not have.

Also if I would be able to have the administrator account password, that account also have only debugger rights. (for some stupid reason I did that).

I remember something about XP having a hidden default Admin account but have no idea if true or not.

Hope you can help me out.

Is there a way to give me Admin rights again?

Because now when I want to change my account settings I need to type in the Admin password which I do not have.

Did you try to login leaving the admin passwort blank?

Maybe this helps?

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/admins.htm

Yep I did but could not log on

The Ultimate boot CD has a password reset tool built in:

http://www.ubcd4win.com/contents.htm

I've never used bartpe for this purpose so I can't vouch for it, but it sounds like it should do the trick:

"(re)set the passwords of any user that has a valid local account, create a new local user with administrator rights, and set administrator rights to existing user on your NT system"

133Mb download though, how's your connection?

This is possibly out of date info so WAIT until one of the computer whizzes confirms it before trying.

I’m unsure and only mentioning it in the hope it will jog someone’s memory.

I’ve done this on older computers to gain access and change settings and passwords on hand-me-down work computers that didn’t arrive with passwords.

There was a battery on the motherboard. If the battery was removed for a minute I believe it would reset the bios back to default. I could then gain access to bios and windows on the next boot up.

I’ve just checked my personal computers and can’t see a battery on the motherboards. Maybe they use a different method on the newer boards or I need glasses.

Resetting the BIOS by removing the battery only resets the BIOS password (if one is set) and doesn't make any change to Windows.

Also, I just tested this plugin for BartPE:

http://www.kood.org/windows-password-renew/

It worked exactly as promised and allowed a change to the admin password.

To use this plugin you'll need to download pebuilder and make a BartPE boot disk using your Windows XP disk:

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

If you need a hand just yell.

EDIT: It can also create a new Administrator user and it can give administrator rights to an existing user but I didn't test those features.

Edited September 29, 200619 yr by silvero

silvero

Thanks for the info on the battery. It's been a couple of years since I needed to do it and memory fades as the years go by.

Future - when u get things sorted - create a secondary admin account with user/password - use it when needed.

Edited September 29, 200619 yr by britmaveric

Hi all,

Thanks for the help so far.

Tommorow I will download the progs as suggested (I am on dial up now) as then

I have a high speeed line.

Yep create an extra Admin account I was always thinking of that but never did........

I will let ya all know how it went.

Cheers,

Alex

Just remembered something fairly important!

If you use the method I posted above to change or reset the password of a user who has encrypted files with Windows file encryption (EFS), then the files encrypted by that user will not be able to be decrypted.

Considering you are going to probably reset the Admin account which you obviously haven't used much this probably doesn't apply, but it could be important information for anyone else using the method I posted above.