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Enable the administrator account in Windows Vista

Posted May 7th, 2008 in Windows

Windows Vista comes with a built-in "Administrator" account which is disabled by default. It is possible to enable this account if for some reason you need to. This post looks at how to do this. Please be sure you really do need to enable this account before you follow these instructions as it is possible it may introduce other security issues.

First you need to get into the Computer Management Console and navigate to user management. To do this, from the "Start" menu (the round button on the taskbar with the Windows icon on it) and navigate like so:

Start -> Control Panel -> Classic View -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management

User Account Control will then ask you for permission to access the computer management console. Click the "Continue" button and then navigate like so:

Local Users and Groups -> Users

Right-click the Administrator account and select the "Properties" option. The dialog that appears will look like the one in the screenshot below. Make sure the "Account is disabled" checkbox is unchecked and click the "OK" button to save your change and close the dialog.

Right-click the Administrator account and select the "Set Password" option. A warning dialog will be displayed as shown in the screenshot below. Click the "Proceed" button.

Now you can set the password using the change password dialog as shown in the screenshot below.

That's it - the Administrator account is now enabled (along with any security implications ;)

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