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

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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

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102 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-06-16T04:05:57+00:00

    Hi.. can you help me please.. when i start the safe mode there is no admin account to choose? when i do system restore it says admin needs to do this but this laptop doesnt have one... but i can do anything because every thing is asking for a an admin password.... arrrrggggghhhhh :)

    Hi Shelley

    The Safe Mode instructions only work if you have lost all administrator accounts on the computer.

    It will not work to recover a lost password for an administrator account.

    Sorry but forum policies do not allow information for recovering passwords. This is required due to the anonymous nature of these forums.

    If you have another Administrator account, you can log on with that account and change the password for the account where you have forgotten the password.

    If you do not have another Administrator account, you can use a Password Reset disk, if you created one.

    If you do not have either of these options, your best solution is to take the computer to a local computer repair shop and have them recover the password for you.

    Unfortunately, beyond this we cannot help. Please see the following policies for these forums and Microsoft.

    Microsoft and these forums have a policy about password cracking software.

    Please see the following links.

    Answers Support Community Password Policy

    Keeping Passwords Secure- Microsoft Policy on Getting Around Passwords:

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-security/keeping-passwords-secure-microsoft-policy-on/39f56ef0-5d68-41ad-9daa-6e6019c25d37

    Microsoft policy about lost or forgotten passwords:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/189126/en-us

    Regards

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-06-22T21:26:20+00:00

    1st - Thanks for all the info provided. I've been having a similar problem that I still have been unable to resolve. I tried all the restart, troubleshooting, administrator suggestions. I come up every time with a slightly different problem. I keep getting a no administrator on this computer, thus there are some areas I can't access to change my account type. I have spent almost 8 hours today following links & trying to find ways to deal with this. Yours has been the easiest to understand, so I've come back to you. How can I do anything without having an administrator?  Is there a process through troubleshooting or something to add an administrator? Yours or anyone elses help would be greatly appreciated. I'm about to pull what hair I have left out. THANKS!!

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-08-22T00:27:08+00:00

    Was there ever a resolution to this problem?  I just installed Windows 8 on my computer and have found that my regular user account (which shows me as Administrator) is set up as a standard type user.  I am assuming this is what is keeping me out of files transferred from XP.  

    I finally figured out that there is an Local Administrator Account, so I signed in as that, thinking I could then go into the user accounts, and change the type under my regular user account from Standard to Administrator.  But, as CBLail states, the button to press to make the change dims out and is not accessible.  What does this mean if the Local Admin cannot even make the change?

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-08-22T01:37:53+00:00

    hey this is my first time on this website, i have had enough!!! we got our windows 8 computer about 2 years ago, and last year we got the blue screen of death, and somehow i fixed it. Recently, since last spring i can not update, download, or sing into the amdmin account with the admin password. I have no clue what the password is, it seems like it just generated it by itself. im really worried about my computer. i have been working on this for 3 months now. i am sick of this, my computer has 1 administrative account, and a personal account for me, (standard user i belive), and a local account for my family. i have no clue how to access this thing and im getting really frusterated, i have no clue on how to fix this and how this password got here. When i try to go and delete a user account, clear the whole computer i need the admin password. i cant do anything, basically my computer is locked up, i can only login to my personal accounts. please please please help me with this, i dont think i can take it any longer. i can't and dont know how to setup the password reset disk, ive tried and didnt work. PLZ MICROSOFT COMMUNITY I CAN'T TAKE IT HELP ME!;'(

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