Is it advisable/useful to have a second (full) Administrator account?

The built in Administrator account was not intended for general use and is best left disabled. Create an admin level account for your normal use. I like to have a secondary account for use if for any reason I am unable to use the normal account. Any secondary account must be enabled or you could not log in with it. It needs to have a good password or it is a security risk.

Thanks for the replies. @swarfega, the guide that you directed me to, doesn't explain how to add an Administrator account if I read it correctly.

@LMiller7, I am already described as Administrator on my PC. It was the one that had been created by default when I installed Windows. However, during the installation of certain programs I had to enable the other Administrator account that has more rights.

How would I create the secondary account that you refer to with the elevated Administrator rights?

At work, I have a standard user account on my Windows 10 box which is NOT an administrator. Then, I have a secondary account on the box, which I am not allowed to use to login to the box, but I use it for everything that needs an administrator. So, anytime I get a UAC prompt, I have to type in my secondary account name and password.

@pparks1 is your secondary account equivalent to the built-in Administrator account?

This is what is confusing me: The default Administrator account which is created when Windows is installed and the built-in (normally disabled) Administrator Account that apparently has elevated rights. Should (or could) I create a second Administrator Account for safety's sake in an emergency, like the one which is built-in?

Fortitude said:

@pparks1 is your secondary account equivalent to the built-in Administrator account?

Yes, my secondary account is equivalent to the built-in Administrator account. However, I am not allowed to logon to the computer with that account.

Fortitude said:

This is what is confusing me: The default Administrator account which is created when Windows is installed and the built-in (normally disabled) Administrator Account that apparently has elevated rights. Should (or could) I create a second Administrator Account for safety's sake in an emergency, like the one which is built-in?

Yes, having a second account with Admin rights is always a good idea. Most people accomplish this by having their normal everyday account added to the local Admins group. So, that ends up being their primary admin account, and the admin account at install time is their backup, emergency admin account.

I created an account in by going through Settings --> Family & Other People and designated it as "Administrator". I hope that this will be fine, and more importantly I hope that I will never have to be obliged to resort to this account in order to solve a problem!

pparks1 said:

Most people accomplish this by having their normal everyday account added to the local Admins group.

That is true but it is not a wise strategy as it is trivial for malware to bypass UAC.

It is much better to use an account that is not part of the administrator group for daily use. As you described you do at work in fact.

Fortitude said:

I created an account in by going through Settings --> Family & Other People and designated it as "Administrator". I hope that this will be fine, and more importantly I hope that I will never have to be obliged to resort to this account in order to solve a problem!

Also you want to make sure the second administrator account is a local account. If you are using an email address to log into it, then it is likely using a Microsoft Account login which people tend to have more problems with than local accounts. Also, make sure to not forget the password over time.

The "elevated" built-in administrator account in Windows 10 actually has less rights than a user account in the administrators group because the built-in administrator account has UAC disabled. UAC is just the prompt that says "Are you sure you want to do this?" when you try to perform an action that requires administrator privileges. By default, when you disable UAC on an administrator account you get locked out of some Windows apps such as Edge browser and the Microsoft store.