No Windows 10 Administrator account

I am in the middle of a problem where I am stuck in the Microsoft "Automatic Repair" loop.

While stuck in this loop I tried changing the 'recoveryenabled' setting to 'No', only to find that my system does not have an 'Administrator' account.

I thought, obviously incorrectly, that when I created only a user account and gave it Administrator privileges that would "become" the Administrator account.

How can Microsoft let a system be created where no one can log on as Administrator and then only allow THE Administrator, not AN Administrator make certain important changes which you find out that you need only after you need them?

Anyway, I re-enabled the 'recoveryenabled' setting and am back to the Automatic Repair loop.

My question is, once I fix the non-boot problem or restore the system, how do I create what Microsoft deems the REAL Administrator's Administrator so I can administer my system when I need to in the future?

THE Administrator account is disabled by default. When you install Windows the first account it creates is AN administrator. I generally create at least one more administrator account for emergencies. Any account that is a member of the administrators group is sufficient to administer the system, there is normally no need to enable the Administrator.

Windows however will let you demote an administrator account to a standard account, even if it is the last administrator account you have. It is possible to recover from such a mistake, but it's a bit involved....

Fix UAC prompt has grayed out or missing Yes button in Windows 10

Bree said:

THE Administrator account is disabled by default. When you install Windows the first account it creates is AN administrator. I generally create at least one more administrator account for emergencies. Any account that is a member of the administrators group is sufficient to administer the system, there is normally no need to enable the Administrator.
Windows however will let you demote an administrator account to a standard account, even if it is the last administrator account you have. It is possible to recover from such a mistake, but it's a bit involved....

Fix UAC prompt has grayed out or missing Yes button in Windows 10

Not so for me. First of all, I would never 'demote' my account.
It is my machine and I am the only user.
I was reading a bit and it seems Win10 does not have a default Administrator account like Vista, and Win 7,or 8. At least that's what some folks said (that's the Internet for you). Right or wrong, there is
no default Administrator account on any of my machines (all Win10).
Anyway, I was stuck in my "other" Microsoft problem ('Automatic Repair' loop) and the blue screen which was supposed to afford me the ability to log into THE Administrator account had nothing listed, implying it did not exist.
I have since restored from a 4 day old backup and have attached a screenshot of my account with my admin name blocked for security purposes but upon further investigation there is NO other account either enabled or greyed out.

BigRich said:

I was reading a bit and it seems Win10 does not have a default Administrator account like Vista, and Win 7,or 8. At least that's what some folks said (that's the Internet for you). Right or wrong, there is

Yes, that's the internet for you



Windows 10 does have a built-in Administrator account, same as all previous Windows did. You can prove it for yourself by opening a Command Prompt and typing the command NET USER ADMINISTRATOR. But unlike XP, the Administrator account is disabled for signing in by default. In the more innocent days of XP it was common (bad) practice for people to use Administrator as their main (or only) account. This gave all sorts of malware free reign to 'run as administrator'.

In Windows 10 The Administrator account is disabled by default for use as a regular account, and the user is given a normal user account that is a member of the administrators group instead. This is far safer to use as your daily account because normal users are subject to User Account Control. Most processes run by a normal administrator user are run with standard user privileges, if/when you try to do something that needs administrator rights the UAC will ask you if you want to proceed, giving you the chance to say 'NO' if it is a suspicious process that has somehow sneaked in.

Bree said:

Yes, that's the internet for you

Windows 10 does have a built-in Administrator account, same as all previous Windows did. You can prove it for yourself by opening a Command Prompt and typing the command NET USER ADMINISTRATOR. But unlike XP, the Administrator account is disabled for signing in by default. In the more innocent days of XP it was common (bad) practice for people to use Administrator as their main (or only) account. This gave all sorts of malware free reign to 'run as administrator'.
In Windows 10 The Administrator account is disabled by default for use as a regular account, and the user is given a normal user account that is a member of the administrators group instead. This is far safer to use as your daily account because normal users are subject to User Account Control. Most processes run by a normal administrator user are run with standard user privileges, if/when you try to do something that needs administrator rights the UAC will ask you if you want to proceed, giving you the chance to say 'NO' if it is a suspicious process that has somehow sneaked in.

OK, I believe you Bree, but the proof is in the pudding. I don't remember seeing a "UAC" inquiry for which I can simply answer Yes or No to a command execution. At least I don't recall.

I do recall MANY times where I have attempted a command and the frustration of the OS response of 'Access denied' or you do not have the privileges to complete the command (or some other restrictive OS dribble) while I'm supposed to be "super-user" in Unix terms.

The most aggravating situation (and I've been there to many times to mention) is rebooting to command line or other choices during some form of recovery and the mini OS saying I need to log on as Administrator to the account which is not even shown. I've looked it up and I believe it should say "Windows" or another suggested path but the area is often blank and other times, over the years, it just boots to the command prompt as if I had supplied the credentials without asking anything.

Once I've gotten past the Microsoft so called "security" I no longer even go back and waste my time trying to figure out why it works sometimes and not others.

I used to be a support engineer and cared about these things. Now I just want to get the thing fixed and get back on line. This situation I'm in now has got me asking for help because the main issue (not the subject of this thread) is either in my backup and I restored it with the clone replacement of my software or I have a time-bomb virus (because it reboots several times over several days before going back to the make believe 'auto repair' loop), or I have a bad (intermittent) boot section of my SSD drive (hardware or corruption).

At one point during my attempts to repair my current problem I ran into another "Access Denied" scenario in the recovery troubleshooting. I see some folks have tried some 'diskpart' commands and got it to work but others, including me, are unable to get past that repair attempt because of the access denial.

That command which I could not get to work was 'bootrec /fixboot'. I gave up after trying numerous suggested fixes.

Microsoft simply cannot get its security working seamlessly as it should, and I''ve been working with it since the DOS days in the mid-70's. I truly wish the world had stayed on the Unix platforms, they were MUCH more stable and secure.

BigRich said:

I don't remember seeing a "UAC" inquiry for which I can simply answer Yes or No to a command execution...

Try running Regedit....



...or copying a file into any folder in C:\Program Files.



These checks apply to an ordinary administrator user, but won't stop you from completing the task. Signed in as Administrator these checks are bypassed.

Bree said:

Try running Regedit....



...or copying a file into any folder in C:\Program Files.



These checks apply to an ordinary administrator user, but won't stop you from completing the task. Signed in as Administrator these checks are bypassed.

OK, thanks.I have seen the UAC pop-ups. I guess I just click yes and move on. In my problem scenarios I refer to when I do not see the selection that Microsoft refers to when asking me to supply credentials, etc.

I will have to wait until I see it again and take a screenshot or actual screen picture if I'm in a low level access utility.

Thanks for the UAC screenshots. Yes, I've seen them so often I guess they're almost invisible to me.

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TairikuOkami said:

SYSTEM has the ultimate rights, not Administrator. MS uses access/file permissions to prevent users fiddling with Windows. You can use tools like NSudo to "fix" that, it merely uses Windows own permissions. Windows can be managed by default, but it can be a pain to deal with sometimes.
Download M2-Team NSudo 6.1.1811.18

Thank you TairikuOkami. This should be a help in Windows. I don't know how I could get around the access denials in command line though.

Any other suggestions? Is there a command line nsudo? ...

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I'm going offline for a while now. I need to do a full restore and test it for a while.

The good news (for the forum question, not for me) is that I may be able to run into the same issues if my problem reoccurs and then I can post a screenshot or picture of the problem.

If the problem goes away, I'll be happy to bid it good riddance.

Thank you for your help so far.