Windows – Is the windows xp administrator account enabled by default

administratorwindowswindows xp

I have dilemma with an old laptop with windows xp. I forgot my password but I'm told that you can login as the administrator (which I never messed with in any way when I had access), by pressing ctrl alt del at the welcome screen. But I also heard that it's not enabled by default, but that you can boot into safe mode and do it there. If I didn't disabled/enable it, or change the password, how can I get access to the administrator account?

Best Answer

In order to enable the built-in Administrator account, you must be logged in as an administrative user. First you must reset your account's password by doing one of the following:

  1. Log into a different administrative user (if available) and change your password.

  2. Use a Windows Password Reset Disk (if available).

  3. Use a boot tool like Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor (which is included in Hiren's Boot CD) to reset your account's password.

The latter should only be done on a computer that you legally own.

Once you have access to an administrative account with the above method, you can enable the default Administrator account by doing one of the following:

  1. Right-click My Computer, then click Manage.
  2. Expand Local Users & Groups, then select Users
  3. Right click the Administrator user and click Properties.
  4. Enable the account and click Okay.

Alternative method:

  1. Click Start, Run and type Regedit.exe Navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList

  2. Use the File, Export option to backup the key

  3. Create a new DWORD Value named Administrator
  4. Double-click Administrator, and set 1 as its data
  5. Exit the Registry Editor.

In Windows XP Home Edition, you can unhide the Administrator account, but you cannot log into via normal login mode.

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