How to get back Administrator privileges

Question

How to get back Administrator privileges

Shannon Martis 0

So my son was curious on a code he found. He pressed Windows + R and netplwiz and he clicked on my account and turned it into a user account. what should i do

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3 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Hi,

Since your son was able to change your account admin account to standard, he must be having admin rights. You can ask him to log in back and change back your account to admin one. Only an admin can change account type.

If both of you don't have admin rights by chance, you may try System Restore from Windows RE.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/backup-recovery/windows-recovery-environment

If issue still persists, you can refer Fix 2 here:

https://www.kapilarya.com/solved-lost-administrator-rights-in-windows-11

Let us know if this helps!

Note: Included link(s) in this reply refers to a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

Answer 2

If your son has changed your user account form an Administrator account to a Standard account, you may or may not be able to recover from this if there is no other Administrator account on the PC, because this is a catch 22 situation, you need to be an Administrator to make any meaningful changes in Windows.

1

Try this workaround to test if this can resolve the problem.

Click the power icon on the Login screen.

Press the Shift key and click Restart.

Your PC will boot into the Windows Recovery Environment.

Go to Troubleshoot - Advanced Options - Startup Settings and click Restart.

Upon restart, press 4 to enter Safe Mode.

Type Administrator as the user on the login screen and leave the password box empty when logging into Windows as an Administrator.

In Windows, click the Start button, then type netplwiz and press Enter.

In the resulting utility, select your user account and click Properties.

Select the 'Group membership' tab and set your account as a member of the Administrators group.

Save the settings and restart the PC.

2

If that process is unsuccessful, then the only option will be to backup all your files and from inside the recovery environment, reset Windows.

Go to Troubleshoot - Advanced Options - Reset this PC

Choose to keep nothing

Then start the Reset

Answer 3

If the account was changed from Administrator to a standard user and there is no other administrator account available, use Safe Mode to restore admin access:

Hold Shift while selecting Restart in Windows.
Go to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup Settings.
Select Restart.
Choose option 4 to start in Safe Mode.
When prompted for a password, leave it blank and continue.
In Safe Mode, press Windows + R, type netplwiz, and press Enter.
Double-click the affected account.
Open the Group Membership tab.
Change it back to Administrator.
Restart the PC and sign in normally.

If an Administrator account is visible but disabled, it can also be re-enabled:

In the search box, type computer management and open Computer Management.
Select Local Users and Groups > Users.
If Administrator shows a down arrow, double-click it.
Clear Account is disabled and select Apply.
Sign out and sign back in with the Administrator account.

If the sign-in screen is only showing the built-in Administrator account after a reset, selecting the password box for that account can make the other user accounts appear in the lower-left corner.

References: