Cannot access admin privileges

Tried to install a game for my kid. Realized quickly that I needed admin privileges to do so. Win 10 Home will not let me be admin, no matter what I try. I have scoured the web for hours looking for tips - so far they all fail.

Some things I've tried (that failed):
1. Right-clicking cmd or powershell and selecting "Run as administrator". Gives an error message that the file path is not correct.
2. Cannot change user account type through Control Panel, because admin permission is required to do so.
3. Control Panel > User Accounts > User Accounts > Make changes to my account in PC settings (this is the only option I can select as a non-admin) > Family & other people > Add someone else to this PC > I don't have this person's sign-on information > Add a user without a Microsoft account >>> I fill out all the info and get an error message: "Something went wrong"
4. Many, many more that I've forgotten by now.

I did finally find one way to open a command prompt as an Admin, which was by holding down "Shift" while selecting "Restart" and selecting options to troubleshoot with a command line. Once there I tried:
net user administrator Password \active:yes
Nothing happened. Rebooted. Nothing different.

I would try running the game's .msi from the admin command line described above, but it needs the Microsoft Installer, and I don't know how to invoke that from a command line. It also shows the drive set as x:\ instead of c:\. (Does that matter??)

This is a home computer, used for little more than checking email and paying bills. No networks, nothing fancy. Just pulled it out of the box and started using it. I know just enough about computers to be able to navigate suggestions online, but I have not manipulated anything in any way on this machine since first starting it up. Any suggestions are appreciated, but after all I've tried I'll be amazed if you can provide an answer. TIA though!

On your user account, it sounds like it's a non-admin account. Is that true?
Does your kid have his/her own account? If so, is it a non-admin account?
Is there a 3rd account that is a local admin or Microsoft account?

On the Administrator account where nothing happened, it should be possible to fix what you want to do but I think we need to know what are the usual user accounts in use because after fixing your situation it usually isn't recommended to keep the Administrator account active.
--- That is why I ask "Is there a 3rd account that is a local admin or Microsoft account?"

tigerlady said:

I did finally find one way to open a command prompt as an Admin, which was by holding down "Shift" while selecting "Restart" and selecting options to troubleshoot with a command line. Once there I tried:
net user administrator Password \active:yes
Nothing happened. Rebooted. Nothing different.

The only message you could have seen after typing that command would have either been "The command completed successfully" or an error message. If the command was successful it would have enabled the Administrator account for signing in, and have also set its password to Password (by default the Administrator account has a blank password). It would have no effect on any other account, nor would it change the account you normally sign in with.


When you selected Troubleshoot, Advanced options, Command Prompt the PC would have rebooted, then come to a screen saying:

Command Prompt
Choose an account to continue

...below which would have been one or more account names. You'd have had to click on one and type its password to get to the command prompt. Only accounts that are administrators would appear in this list. Was your normal user account listed there? Or did you click another name for which you knew the password?

To sign in as Administrator or as the other administrator account you seem to know a password for click on Start to bring up the Start menu, then right-click on your user icon and select 'Sign out'. You can choose another account to sign in to at the lower left corner of the sign in screen.


Sign in to Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

Thanks for the quick responses.

After trying net localgroup administrators there are two accounts listed: Administrator and my normal username (which I'll refer to as MyLastName). My family always uses the same account, so there are no other accounts on this machine.

After trying net user <username> on each of these accounts, the Administrator account is NOT active, but MyLastName is. Here is the screenshot for MyLastName:

Bree said:

The only message you could have seen after typing that command would have either been "The command completed successfully" or an error message. If the command was successful it would have enabled the Administrator account for signing in, and have also set its password to Password (by default the Administrator account has a blank password). It would have no effect on any other account, nor would it change the account you normally sign in with.

I don't remember any message at all - successful or not.

Bree said:

When you selected Troubleshoot, Advanced options, Command Prompt the PC would have rebooted, then come to a screen saying:

Command Prompt
Choose an account to continue

...below which would have been one or more account names. You'd have had to click on one and type its password to get to the command prompt. Only accounts that are administrators would appear in this list. Was your normal user account listed there? Or did you click another name for which you knew the password?

My normal account, MyLastName was the only account listed.

Bree said:

To sign in as Administrator or as the other administrator account you seem to know a password for click on Start to bring up the Start menu, then right-click on your user icon and select 'Sign out'. You can choose another account to sign in to at the lower left corner of the sign in screen.


Sign in to Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

There were no options to sign into another account when the PC rebooted. MyLastName was the only option.

tigerlady said:

My normal account, MyLastName was the only account listed....

Because MyLastName was the only account listed to get access to the advanced option Command prompt, that means that the MyLastName account must be an administrator account. It also means that there are no other active administrator accounts, else they would have been listed too.

There were no options to sign into another account when the PC rebooted. MyLastName was the only option.

Are you sure there were no other names in the lower left corner of the sign in screen? If so, then MyLastName is the only active account on this PC.

Open a Command Prompt and type the command net user MyLastName does it say...

Local Group Memberships *Administrators

From your first post....

tigerlady said:

Some things I've tried (that failed):
1. Right-clicking cmd or powershell and selecting "Run as administrator". Gives an error message that the file path is not correct....

This is nothing to do with being an administrator or not. For an administrator it should just open a command prompt (Admin). For a standard user it should bring up a UAC prompt asking for the name and password of an administrator account before giving you the command prompt. The 'path not correct...' error indicates there is something wrong/corrupted in this install of Windows.

2. Cannot change user account type through Control Panel, because admin permission is required to do so.
3. Control Panel > User Accounts > User Accounts > Make changes to my account in PC settings (this is the only option I can select as a non-admin) > Family & other people > Add someone else to this PC > I don't have this person's sign-on information > Add a user without a Microsoft account >>> I fill out all the info and get an error message: "Something went wrong"

The fact that can see and use the 'Family & other people > Add someone else to this PC' option means you are signed in with an administrator account. A Standard user account cannot even see those options. The "Something went wrong" error is another indicator that something is not right in your Windows.

Standard User:



An administrator account:



You will notice in the above that the user account OWNER is shown as an administrator in 'Your info', does it also say that under MyLastName in your info?

Standard steps for repairing a corrupted Windows are to use the sfc /scannow command and the Dism command's RestoreHealth option. Both of these require to be run from a Command Prompt (Admin). But you have already said...

tigerlady said:

Right-clicking cmd or powershell and selecting "Run as administrator". Gives an error message that the file path is not correct....

...so that may be a bit of a problem.

There are other ways to run a command prompt as administrator. Try opening Task Manager. If it says 'More details at the bottom, click on that.

In Task Manager click 'File > Run new task', type CMD in the 'Open:' box and tick 'Create this task with administrative privileges'. Click the OK button and you should get an administrative command prompt.



Then try sfc /scannow.

If SFC could not fix something, then run the command again to see if it may be able to the next time. Sometimes it may take running the sfc /scannow command up to 3 times with Fast Startup turned off and restarting the computer after each time to completely fix everything that it's able to.
If not, then run the Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth command to repair any component store corruption, restart the PC afterwards, and try the sfc /scannow command again.

Run SFC Command in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

Use DISM to Repair Windows 10 Image | Windows 10 Tutorials

I have a couple of observations to mention

Password required is Yes. I believe that means you have a Microsoft account.

I ran Bree's recommendation on my computer
--- My Microsoft account has the same answer as yours
--- My local admin account answers No

On your password, your password last set was 10/22/18.
--- Was there a problem on your computer and one of the things you did was either change the password or your Microsoft account is new?