Access the real Administrator account in Windows 7
Takeaway: In
this edition of the Windows Desktop Report, Greg Shultz explains how
you can activate and use the real Administrator account in Microsoft
Windows 7.
However, there certainly are times when it would just be nice to log on to your Windows 7 system with a good old-fashioned, full-fledged Administrator account. When you do, you’ll never encounter a UAC prompt.
In this edition of the Windows Desktop Report, I’ll explain how you can activate and use the real Administrator account in Windows 7.
Caveat
Now keep in mind that Microsoft has gone to great lengths to prevent you from using the real Administrator account and, as you can imagine, strongly discourages the technique I’m about to show you here. As such, I must emphasize that you should use the real Administrator account very sparingly — never make it your default modus operandi! With that being said, I also have to warn you that you use this technique at your own risk.Activating the account
While you might think that since Microsoft discourages the use of Windows 7’s Administrator account, it is hidden deep within the bowels of the operating system. However, that’s not the case at all. In fact, to find the Administrator account you have to look no further than the Local Users and Groups tool.To begin, open the Start menu, right-click the Computer icon, and select Manage from the context menu. When you see the Computer Management console, go to the navigation panel on the left and click the arrow next to Local Users and Groups to expand the branch. Then, click the Users folder. At this point you can see and select the Administrator account, as shown in Figure A.
Figure A
Select the Administrator account.
With the Administrator account selected, click More Actions under Administrator in the Actions panel on the right and select Properties from the menu, as shown in Figure B.Figure B
Use the More Actions menu to access the Properties command.
When you see the Administrator Properties dialog box, just clear the Account Is Disabled check box, as shown in Figure C, and click OK.Figure C
The Administrator account is disabled by default.
Keep in mind that now that the Administrator Account is activated you can also work with the account in the User Accounts tool in the Control Panel.Setting the password
By default, the Administrator account has a blank password, so the first order of business after activating the account is to set a password — preferably a complex password consisting of at least eight characters and using uppercase, lowercase, and numbers or special symbols.With the Administrator account selected, click More Actions under Administrator in the Actions panel and select the Set Password command. You will be shown a warning that explains that resetting a password from outside the account itself can cause irreversible loss of information, as shown in Figure D.
Figure D
When you select the Set Password command, you will see this warning.
However, since the Administrator Account has never been used, you can click Proceed with impunity. When you do, you’ll see the Set Password for Administrator dialog box, shown in Figure E, and can type the new password in both text boxes. Then, click OK.Figure E
You will be prompted to type the password for the Administrator account.
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