Windows 7 Pro Administrator is No Longer Administrator

The Administrator account might only be active in safe mode.
Did Administrator have a password.

I usually have two admin accounts just for a case like this.

That's rather strange.  Simply installing Windows updates shouldn't change your account type from Administrator to Standard.  As a precaution, I would perform an antivirus scan as well as a quick scan with Malwarebytes.

Arnold,
Administrator did have a password but it didn't work.  Went in as myself and reset it.  Booted into Safe Mode, no go.
Poweredge, may need to try your suggestion although I have done a lot of work today and affected programs are listed at over 20 + going back to Dec 22nd.
I am uninstalling windows Security patches to see what happens there first.
Open to all thoughts,
Thanks

If the previous suggestions don't work, you can utilize this utility disc to enable the built-in default Administrator account and reset the password.  It will also show you which accounts still have admin privileges.  Download the freeware ISO file from here:

Petter Nordahl-Hagen's Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

After you have burned that ISO to disc, boot up into the Linux environment and reset your password.  I have been using this utility to help people with their forgotten Windows passwords for over ten years, and unless the hard drive has actually been encrypted it has worked every time! Here is a comprehensive tutorial on how to utilize it:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ss/ontpre-screenshot-guide.htm

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ss/ontpre-screenshot-guide-p2.htm

There are two important steps within that tutorial that warrant extra attention:

- When you reach the User Edit Menu stage of the process it's best to select "1" to Clear (blank) user password.  You can always change the password to something more secure after you successfully log into Windows with the blank password.

- When you reach Step FOUR: Writing back changes, you will be queried with About to write file(s) back! Do it? [n].  If you inadvertently pressed Enter on this screen the changes won’t go into effect.  You need to specifically type "y" first for the updates to be written to the operating system.

There are tools that you can use ubcd4win which you can use to boot the system and perhaps the Administrator account got disabled.

use computer management when you are logged into the system to see whether the administrator account is still enabled or it might be locked out.

The actual Administrator account is disabled by default ... did you Enable it?

Poweredge Tech,
Yes I am afraid i did when i first was setting it up

Run5k creating CD now from Pogostick

Run5k,
Linux boot stopped on:
pci  0000:04:00.0:  PCI bridge to [bus 05-05] (subtractive decode)

what is that about?

I tried boot nodrivers and boot nousb, stopped same place

It sounds like you have encountered a rare situation where it doesn't like one of your components.  If you want to continue with this potential solution, I would keep trying the various boot options and take a closer look at the tutorial that I hyperlinked for potential options.

Hi
TRY THIS, I TRIED, IT WORKED FOR ME.
    1- Join your home Pc with any domain Network FOR THE TIME BEING TO YOUR ADMIN RIGHTS
    2- Login as domain Admin in your PC just for creating a profile into it.
    3- ASSIGN LOCAL ADMIN RIGHTS BACK TO YOU by using domain admin account
    4- RESTART YOUR PC AND ENJOY WITH ADMIN RIGHTS.
   

Call4pchelp,
that would probably work, however at the current time we are not allowed to add W7 clients to our network.  Still 100% XP pro.
I will take it to local computer shop next week where they can do that, but was hoping to get it cleared up today.
I live in the country and use dialup so everything at home is sloooow.  Brought it in to work today to do updates, bad plan.

Run5k,
I have a Raid 1 setup, could that be causing the issue?

I ran MSE scan first thing this morning, running Malwarebytes Pro now

If you have a spare PC and router/hub/switch, you can install 2008 on it, setup up a quick/basic domain, and do it ... if that method works at all.

Reran MSE, clean.
Malwarebytes clean.  Calling it a day, make that a year.  back Tuesday.
thanks for everyones help.
Hopefully I can get it straightened out.

I have used the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor on machines with a RAID configuration before, but not recently.  I don't recall any extraordinary juggling.

"Brought it in to work today to do updates, bad plan." - pjam

Focusing on troubleshooting once again, based upon what you just said did you actually physically connect this machine up to your domain port in order to perform the updates?  If so, some networks and/or software suites will push configuration changes as soon as you acquire a domain IP address, even without actually joining the machine through Active Directory.

Run5k,
I did connect on the same network as the work domain.
No idea where to look for this change?
Local Policy?
I am at home now, I just did an IPconfig /all and I have  "CONNECTION-SPECIFIC DNS SUFFIX" related to the network sorta.  Not the Domain in use ow, but the old domain

Unless the system PXE booted from the network and had everything reinstall, there is no way without matching credentials for data to be pushed onto an attached system.
The configuration can be to deny "unauthorized" systems from connecting 802.1x.

Arnold, that's certainly true.  However, a workstation can still be affected by certain configuration changes.  For example, our Windows workstations with Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition pre-installed can still receive antivirus definition updates from the parent server as long as they had a valid IP address.

Pjam, as a simple "lesson learned" for future reference, I would definitely advise against hooking up your home computer to a domain network connection.  In your shoes, I would continue to see if I could get the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor to work.  

Run5k,
Just for clarigfication, I haven't forgotten the password I just cannot make anyone an administrator.
Will that do that for me.  I only see where it deletes the unknown pw and allws a new one to be created.
Still don't know why Linux wil not finish booting.  will try some more tomorrow.

But, you haven't been able to login as the built-in default Administrator account because it is disabled, correct?  If that's the case, the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor disc will allow you to enable that account, and once you login with it you will then be able to modify another account to give if full admin privileges.

IRun5k,
It isn't disabled, it just is a Standard user for some unknown reason.  Although when you look at "Manage Accounts" they all say Username/Administrator/Password Protected.

I just created a new user account as an Administrator to see what would happen.  When logging in I get that same error:
"could not locate INF File 'C:\Windows\INF\msnetmtg.inf'" and this one:
"could not locate INF File 'C:\Windows\INF\msmsgs.inf'"

New account has Runs As Administrator, but not the ability to make the other accounts Administrator, still grayed out.