Unable to sign in as System Administrator, "no program associated..."

I was attempting to change the User administrator name so that it reflected a new windows explorer file path. When my SO set up the machine, she set the user name as "Mike & Steph". Well, this is now in the file path for all of our files and I work with software where no special characters or spaces can be in the file path.

As I tried to change it, I found a forum that said to create a new local user, set it as the administrator, and delete the old one. I was wary of deleting the old one, so I created a new local user, made it the Administrator, then restarted the machine. Now I am unable to sign in as the new Admin user, when I try to I get an error message and kicked back to the Windows start-up/sign-in menu.

I am unable to sign in as the administrator at all, or change the Admin rights back to the old user.

When I try to sign into the Command Prompt (Admin), it prompts me to enter the Admin password. I do, and I get the error:

"This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Please install a program or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Programs control panel."

I am not even able to system restore, as I cannot sign in as Administrator. How can I fix this so that I can just go back to the "Mike & Steph" original user as the Administrator?

Any help would be much appreciated. I am very worried I have to restore the whole system.

Thank you!

imnevilwalrus said:

I am unable to sign in as the administrator at all, or change the Admin rights back to the old user.

I assume from that wording that not only did you create a new user with administrator rights, but you also downgraded the original user from an administrator to a standard user. If so, that was unnecessary (you can have as many administrative accounts as you want) and an unfortunate choice.

You need to log in as an administrator to sort out your problems, so tell use exactly what error messages you get if you try to log into the new account you created. Let's see if we can help you sign into that, then you'll have the permissions to sort out your other problem.

Thank you for the reply. You are correct with your assessment of the issue. Apologies for the double submission.

Below are the only two error messages I am able to produce, unfortunately.


Ex) The error message I attached with my original post. I receive this one when I go into the terminal and attempt to sign in as the administrator. Did it write a new user file without putting anything into it?
"This file does not have permission associated with it for performing this action...."


Ex) Upon booting up the machine, I attempt to log in as the new administrator user. It shows a message:
"The user Profile Service failed the sign-in. User profile cannot be loaded."

The weird bit is I do not get error messages for trying to change the original User back to have Admin rights.

Ex) I attempt to "Change Account Type" of my original user back to admin rights, it prompts me to enter in the password for the new administrator to do so. I type in the correct password, the pop-up go's away, but nothing else happens. It is as if it recognizes I have entered in the correct password, but does not let me change the account types. No error message output, but it also does not allow me to proceed into changing the account type.

I realize I really screwed up, I just hope there is a way to sign in as the new user to remove the admin rights. It would be nice if Windows didn't make it so difficult just to change the name of the user in windows explorer...

onedrive - How to rename the User folder in Windows 10? - Super User

This is the forum that got me into the mess. Not saying the solution posted is not correct. Just linking in case it helps. I must have royally messed up somewhere in the process.

imnevilwalrus said:

Upon booting up the machine, I attempt to log in as the new administrator user. It shows a message:
"The user Profile Service failed the sign-in. User profile cannot be loaded."

That is a known problem with a number of known causes. In this thread....
The user profile service failed the sign-in user profile cannot be loa
.. @Brink said:

If you haven't already, you might see if the tutorial below may be able to help. It's the same in Windows 10.

User Profile Service failed the sign-in - Fix in Windows 8

Bree said:

That is a known problem with a number of known causes. In this thread....
The user profile service failed the sign-in user profile cannot be loa
.. @Brink said:

Yeah, both these options require that there is another administrator profile not affected by the issue. Doesn't really apply.

I guess it is time to re-install windows then.

Thanks anyway for taking the time.