Cannot change account to administrator!

Anonymous
2012-11-03T17:01:26+00:00

Hi. I need to change my account to administrator so I can make changes to my internet accounts but my internet provider told me that I am just a standard user in Windows 8 and I need to change it to administrator. When I try to change my user profile from standard to administrator, Windows 8 won't let me, even though I am logged in under my Microsoft account. How can I change this? It's pretty frustrating!!

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Accounts, profiles, and login

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2012-11-03T22:53:02+00:00

Hi. I need to change my account to administrator so I can make changes to my internet accounts but my internet provider told me that I am just a standard user in Windows 8 and I need to change it to administrator. When I try to change my user profile from standard to administrator, Windows 8 won't let me, even though I am logged in under my Microsoft account. How can I change this? It's pretty frustrating!!

Hi

You cannot use a Standard (Local) account to change the account to Administrator. You can only use an existing Administrator account to do this.

Open Control Panel (Move the cursor to the lower/left corner of the screen and Right Click, select Control Panel on the menu.

In Control Panel, select User Accounts.

Select Manage another account.

This will show all of the user accounts on the computer. If there is an Administrator account it will show that designation.

Sign Out and log on with any Administrator Account.

Go back to Control Panel/User Accounts.

Select Manage another account and then select the Standard account you wish to change.

Select the Change Account Type option.

Select the Administrator option to change the account and click the Change Account Type button.

If there are no other Administrator Accounts, let us know and we can try another recovery method.

Let us know what you find.

Regards

Was this answer helpful?

100+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

102 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2014-11-19T14:32:29+00:00

    It's some late answer, but it could be useful.

    I had the same trouble, It has solved registering the user at Microsoft, following the confirmation mail sent when create the account as Administrator. The trouble was even I create the account as administrator, this was stored as Standard and change to Administrator as soon as I register the account through confirmation mail.

    XP is better OS, remember Microsoft guys had troubles with Window 8 when a tablet hung up in middle of presentation

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2014-10-21T00:31:25+00:00

    i can't change my account from standard account to administrative. it is saying " the program is blocked by group policy" what eles can i do how can i change it. i'm running windows 8.1

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2014-09-10T21:04:29+00:00

    This is just another one of the thousand or so ULTRA frustrating threads that is exactly like a dog chasing its own tail. The experts don't focus on the OPs initially stated problem or follow its progression. I have the same issue...and I'm in the IT business working on servers for a living and can't get this working!!!

    I have what I thought was an local administrator account since my account was a member of the local administrators group - evidently that's not enough. If I log into the built-in administrator account, I can not go to the 'change account type' tool and change from standard to administrator for my main account / user profile. FINE.

    Then the next step when that doesn't work as you follow the thread is booting to safe mode, use an administrator account once IN safe mode (I must use the built in admin account as it's the only other account that exists besides the account I want to promote to administrator - granted, I've renamed 'administrator' to 'WSadmin' but that shouldn't matter...I don't think), then go and EASILY change the intended account type from standard to administrator, but AGAIN, EVEN IN SAFE MODE, the confirmation 'change account type' button greys-out once 'administrator' is selected, making it impossible to change the intended account type to ADMINISTRATOR.

    I've seen at least THREE folks reiterate this exact scenario, but none of the moderators is catching on that this entire process doesn't work.

    To further frustrate matters, there are NOOBS swooping in every few posts asking different questions that are not identical to the above scenario. The experts then move off onto those tangents and their attention focuses away from their ineffective 'solutions' to the OP.

    OMG!!!! What does one do when an account can not be switched to type: administrator EVEN after attempting the procedure from SAFE MODE??????????????????????

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2014-09-09T21:18:03+00:00

    I have the same problem & have tried to change it by doing this but when I click on manage another account I just get the same box I get when I try to update download which says I need to type in the administrator password. There is no place to type it in even if I had a clue what it is! HELP!!!!!!!!!!

    Thanks! Shirley

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments