rday001
asked on
Enable Administrator account in Windows 7
I have a user who quit our company. The local administrator account was never enabled- only the user. He won't give us the password. It is not on a domain- only set up locally. How can I change the password for his account or enable the local administrator account at this point?
It is a Windows 7 machine. Not sure if 32 or 64 bit.
It is a Windows 7 machine. Not sure if 32 or 64 bit.
Another program that can reset the password: http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
To elaborate a little more on Petter's program, the preferred method should be to enable the Administrator account (option 4 in its menu, if I recall correctly), blank its password, then reboot and logon as Administrator to access the User Accounts control panel applet and change the ex-employee's password to anything you want (as well as setting a new password for Administrator).
i.e. the Administrator account is disabled by default on ALL copies of Win7, and *should* be left that way until you need it.
After changing the password, before logging out, disable the Administrator account again:
click the 'start' orb
type cmd in the search box
hold down Ctrl+Shift and hit Enter
(or right-click the result that appears at the top of the start menu, under Programs (1), and choose Run as administrator)
answer Yes to the UAC prompt
In the command window that opens, run the command
net user administrator /active:no
"The command completed successfully" should appear.
i.e. the Administrator account is disabled by default on ALL copies of Win7, and *should* be left that way until you need it.
After changing the password, before logging out, disable the Administrator account again:
click the 'start' orb
type cmd in the search box
hold down Ctrl+Shift and hit Enter
(or right-click the result that appears at the top of the start menu, under Programs (1), and choose Run as administrator)
answer Yes to the UAC prompt
In the command window that opens, run the command
net user administrator /active:no
"The command completed successfully" should appear.
ASKER
This is some awesome software!!! Works like a charm!! Thanks