User Account reduced from Admin to Guest


  1. Posts : 3
    Windows 10
       #1

    User Account changed from Admin to Guest


    Dear people of the Tenforums,

    I could use your advice.

    On Saturday I decided to give new Windows 10 (it picked Home Edition by itself) a try. Previous version was Windows 7.

    After a flawless install I have seen that something on my C: partition is using a lot of disk space. It was Windows.old file which I have successfully deleted by using Disk Cleanup. But last night I see Windows.old has reappeared back, which is quite a surprise, so I wanted to delete it again.

    But now UAC blocks my every effort because User Account "doesn't have Administrator permission". The Yes button in the UAC is greyed out, I can only click No which leaves me where I was. The Account is reduced to what appears to be Guest. Naturally, I ended up more or less completely cut off from making any serious alteration to anything. I can't delete folders of importance, change account status (back to Admin), nothing ... I can only use the computer ...

    Another issue is that my otherwise empty D: partition has 3 files (one of them is named "WindowsImageBackup"), they together take more than 100G of hard disk space. As a Guest it's impossible to open or access them to see what's in them, let alone delete them. Does anyone know what they are?

    I know that Win 10 is supposed to delete Windows.old by itself after 30 days (I hope "WindowsImageBackup" too), but is there any way for me to solve the issue of account status - to return to Admin - and do it by myself alone as soon as possible?

    It all seems like some bug or something, it's quite frustrating and I tried to do a Repair Install, but as a Guest you're pretty much stuck.
    Last edited by Gorkee23; 13 Jan 2016 at 14:18.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 5,169
    64bit Win 10 Pro ver 21H2
       #2

    Hello and welcome to the Forums!

    I suggest you try to enable the built in administrator account, log out and then back into the new admin account and then see if you can change your user account back to being an administrator account.

    Here are the tutorials you will need to do this:

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2969-administrator-account-enable-disable-windows-10-a.html?filter[1]=User Accounts

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/6917-account-type-change-windows-10-a.html?filter[1]=User Accounts

    Notice that there are several options for doing each change - you may need to try more than one before you find the one that works for you.

    Hope this helps!

    Phil
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 3
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Dear user philc43,

    Thank you for the reply.

    I have managed to solve the problem:

    1. Enter the Safe Mode (it turns on in-built Administrator account automatically)

    2. Open Command Prompt and type: net localgroup administrators UserName /add

    3. Substitute UserName with the actual user name and press Enter.

    (Close Command Prompt, Log-Off as the Administrator to exit Safe Mode. Sign In with your personal account to return to Normal Mode again.)

    That's pretty much it, further details can be found here: Option IV (Section 6).

    First it took me forever to figure out how to enter Safe Mode, because Windows 10 have that altered completely.
    Then I spent an hour and a half to exit the damn Safe Mode: one can reboot as much as he wants, system is stuck in there. Luckily I logged off as Administrator and system shuts the Safe Mode down to switch back into Normal Mode.

    Gorkee23
    Last edited by Gorkee23; 17 Jan 2016 at 20:07.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 5,169
    64bit Win 10 Pro ver 21H2
       #4

    Hello Gorkee23,

    Glad you got it sorted, thanks for describing the process that worked for you because it will be a great help to others in the same situation.

    I had not come across the problem that safe mode persists on reboot so that was interesting.

    :)
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 3
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #5

    No problem. :)

    After I returned to Normal mode I had two accounts: one was mine, the other was Administrator.

    You have to remove or shut down the Administrator account afterwards.

    To see how this is done, I searched the Internet, that information is not too hard to find.
      My Computer


 

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