Can I change users as the administrator? I only want one as admin.

Can I change users as the administrator?

I have one account (A) as the administrator. I want to change the administrator to a different account (B) and then take away the administrator ability of (A).

Can this be done? I've seen the tutorials on this site but that question wasn't answered that I could tell.

As it is now, I have some important work related documents, financial records, business websites and personal writings on the administrator account and I want them on a non-admin account so if I take the PC in for repair or changes in hardware, prying eyes can't pry.

Thank you

jimmieballgame said:

Can I change users as the administrator?

I have one account (A) as the administrator. I want to change the administrator to a different account (B) and then take away the administrator ability of (A).

Can this be done? I've seen the tutorials on this site but that question wasn't answered that I could tell.

As it is now, I have some important work related documents, financial records, business websites and personal writings on the administrator account and I want them on a non-admin account so if I take the PC in for repair or changes in hardware, prying eyes can't pry.

Thank you

Hello, jimmieballgame. Welcome to TenForums.

The repair shop will need an admin account to have control over any hardware or software changes. By design all admin accounts have essentially unrestricted control over the computer. Whatever access they do not have they can grant themselves. Any change made by one admin can be changed by another. All admin accounts are equal. The built in Administrator account is a little different but not relevant to your issue. Any admin can delete, change the password, and make any other changes to any account without knowing the password to that account. All of this is by design.

However, there is a way to do it via group policy, but even that is not 100% foolproof. Anyone with knowledge, which I'm sure they have, can change that.

Therefore, IMO, you're better off backing up all your files on a exterior drive or in the cloud, then delete them in your account, and then reload when they're finished. In fact I'd back them up in two places since they are important business files.

Hope that helps.

Thank you, Hippsie. Great explanation. I could even understand it. And that is a miracle in itself.

I see a double backup in the very near future.

Thanks again.

jimmieballgame said:

Thank you, Hippsie. Great explanation. I could even understand it. And that is a miracle in itself.

I see a double backup in the very near future.

Thanks again.

You're welcome, jimmieballgame. Glad to be of help. :)

#1 rule in computing is backup, backup, backup! Computing has a double whammy > Hardware and/or software. Either one or both can fail at any time. Being in business before, now retired, I can relate how much more important our files are. Very costly if lost.

If you don't have already, I would highly suggest you get a single or double hard drive dock to use for backup so to have 1 or 2 copies there along with the one on your laptop hard drive. USB thumb drive(s) is another choice. OneDrive and other cloud storage is yet another means in which you can access files anywhere if you travel.

What we call mirroring the entire hard drive is another feature we highly recommend. Windows has it's own or there is 3rd party software to do so. There are free and advanced versions of those. Both have options of backing up the entire drive (recommended) or individual files.

Setup Windows Backup in Windows 10 Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials

If not performed already, turn on System Restore (off by default) to use restore points or other means in 10 as a first defense against failure.

System Restore Windows 10 Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

And yet another item that is handy to have. If you have room on your hard drive, you can create a partition on it to configure and store your files on it rather than within the OS itself in case something happens to the OS. That way you won't loose files if OS recovery is needed.

Recover Windows 10 from a Recovery Drive Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

ATM I can't find the tutorial on how to create a partition , but I know it's somewhere. Of course you can have your PC shop perform any of this.

Hope that helps you as well. Happy computing! :)

Thanks for the added info. I will take it to heart and into action.