user accounts help- Administrator

n00b · #1 (**permalink**) 27-02-2007, 12:31 PM

my computer has 5 different user accounts on it and i believe only one of them can be the administrator and go into other peoples files. i was wondering how it was possible that my younger brothers account was an administrator and so to was my but he could access other peoples accounts but i could not. i am wondering if there is a way that you can change who has full administrator rights? would it work if i changed all the other accounts to limited and kept mine Administrator?

jephree · #2 (**permalink**) 28-02-2007, 02:02 AM

Home or Pro?

From an Administrator account you should be able to change anything.

Control Panel > User accounts > Change an account.

There is also a built-in Administrator account which in Home is only accessible in Safe Mode. In Pro you can access it from the Welcome screen by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete.

Generally this account is not used except in emergencies. Again from this account you should have total access to all other accounts.

You need at least two administrator accounts. This built-in one plus one. The first account you create will and needs to be an administrator account.

Once you create your first administrator account the built-in one will no longer appear except as noted above.

n00b · #3 (**permalink**) 28-02-2007, 07:41 AM

i have home. you said that the first account you create is the administrator, is there anyway i can make mine administrator?
i tried going into user accounts, changing all user's to limited account except mine but i still cant access other accounts but my brother can like Wtf?

jephree · #4 (**permalink**) 28-02-2007, 07:55 AM

The process is the same as the following quote but rather than passwords you are interested in changing accounts:

Quote:

Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional in a workgroup

To log on as Administrator and reset the password, follow these steps:

1. Restart the computer. After the Power On Self Test (POST), press the F8 key.
2. On the Windows Advanced Options menu, use the ARROW keys to select Safe Mode, and then press ENTER.
3. When you are prompted to select the operating system to start, select Microsoft Windows XP edition (where edition is the edition of Windows XP that is installed), and then press ENTER.
4. On the To begin, click your user name screen, click Administrator.
5. Type the administrator password, and then press ENTER.

Note In some cases, the Administrator password may be set to a blank password. In this case, do not type a password before you press ENTER.

6. Click Yes to acknowledge that Windows is running in safe mode.
7. Click Start, and then click Control Panel (or point to Settings, and then click Control Panel).
8. Click User Accounts.
9. Click the user account whose password you want to change.
10. Click Change the Password if you want to keep a password, or click Remove password if you do not want to use a password. If you remove the password, go to step 11.
11. Type the new password for the user, and then click Change Password.
12. Quit the User Accounts tool, and then restart the computer.

n00b · #5 (**permalink**) 08-03-2007, 09:32 AM

i finally did this, but it didnt do anything. what i wanted was to make my account the administrator and go in and out of other peoples files. at the moment i can only get stuff out of 2 accounts the other 2 i cant access. is that because they had made their profile private when they first created it? anyway i just want to change my account to the Administrator.