Question: Solved
How do I enable an administrator account (hidden) in Windows 10?
Solution:
Usually, this Administrator account (Windows built-in account) is disabled by default. Since it is disabled, it doesn’t appear on the login screen or anywhere else. If you want to enable it, you can do it easily by following a simple command in the command prompt.
The command is:
net user administrator /active:yes
However, enabling an administrator account in Windows 10 is an easy task, but sometimes it becomes tricky, especially when you don’t have administrator rights on your current account or trying to enable it through your standard account (without admin rights).
So we are going through both the scenarios, one if you have administrator rights and second if you don’t have administrator rights.
We are going to share some methods to enable administrator account on your login screen. Go to the steps below and apply them on your computer according to your scenario. Steps are properly annotated with the screenshots and a video tutorial so that you can easily understand the procedure. Please follow these steps:
How to Enable Administrator Account in Windows 10
There are two methods to enable an administrator account. We have explained both of them down below. Opt for one method and then follow its given instructions. We have performed these steps in Windows 7 computer, but the same steps can be worked on all the Microsoft Windows operating system like Windows 10, 8, 8.1, Vista, XP.
- Enable Administrator account through command prompt.
- Enable Administrator account automatically through a “.bat” file.
Method 1: Enable administrator account through command prompt
In method1, you’ll get manual commands to enable the administrator account. The following steps are for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Windows 10, Vista, XP, Servers.
Step 1: Open Command Prompt with the administrator rights.
- Click on the Start button.
- Type “cmd” in the search bar.
- Right-click on the found cmd.exe as a search result and click on “Run as Administrator”. A command prompt window will open up with administrative privileges. Click here to get more details on how to open the command prompt with administrative rights.
Step 2: Run following command in the command prompt.
- Type the following command into the command prompt.
- Press the enter button from your keyboard.
net user administrator /active:yes
- In a few moments after pressing the enter key, either you receive the error message: “system error 5 has occurred – Access is denied” or a successful message: “The command completed successfully”
If you receive this message: “The command completed successfully” it, means your administrator account has been activated.
If you receive “Access is Denied” message it means either you did not open your command prompt with administrator privileges or your current user account doesn’t have administrative rights. In this case, we suggest you to just start the command prompt with “Run as administrator”. If you don’t have administrative rights, then you cannot enable the administrator account.
- Now, restart your computer and check if the Windows buitin administrator account got enabled or not.
Here are the steps if you want to de-activate (Hide/disable) your Administrator Account.
- If you want to disable the administrator account then type the following command in CMD.
net user administrator /active:no
- When done, logout of your current account or reboot your computer.
- After rebooting, the Administrator account should not be present on your login screen.
Method 2: Enable Administrator Account through .bat file
If you are looking forward to doing it automatically, then you can easily do it by using the “.bat” file. Please follow the following steps: Your administrator account will be in an active state on the login screen.
- Download activate_administrator_user.bat
- Download de-activate_administrator_user.bat
- Step 1: Download “activate_administrator_user.bat”
- Step 2: Right-click on the activate_administrator_user.bat file and click on “Run as Administrator” It will flash the command prompt and make the administrator account automatically in the Windows login screen. If you want to disable the administrator account, then you can run its de-activator file: de-activate_administrator_user.bat
That’s it.
Hopefully, this article helped you enable or disable the administrator account (Windows built-in account) on your logon screen in Windows 10, 7, 8. If you have any questions or any suggestions regarding the issue, please let us know in the comment section down below.
Heres my issue. When I installed Windows 10 I used a Microsoft account. Apparently Im not an admin on the computer. I cannot do anything that requires admin priveldges because there simply is no admin. I cant create one. I cant do anything because there is no admin account and I cant make one.
To activate Administrator account you must have to login into your account which have full administrative privilege, without this you can’t active that one.
When I’m trying to run the cmd from admin account, it is asking the admin id and password. Eventually when i m put the id and password it showing “admin account is disabled”, do anyone have the solution for this…..Thanks
the download links dont work
i mistakely disseable for administrator user how to enable administrator user
in dos mode
The problem is; I have totally forgotten my admin password and I want to reset in cmd but every time I get System error 5 Access is denied. I can neither enter with Admin previlage because it requires password nor reset in guest account. What can I do? Please help..
Hi HCB, You can reset the Administrator’s account password if you have another admin privilege account. Simply login into another admin privilege account and go to the change password option of administrator’s account. Here you easily can change the password.
You can reset the password, via safemode.
we r unable to log in into administrative account
for me,
i’d deleted my administrator acount by mistakenly the name was for e.g “shubham” and it was without any password
den when i restarted my win7 pc it is showing log on screen
when i type only “administrator” in username and puts password box as blank, aftr pressing enter or clicking on tat arrow, it says “your account is disabled”
so i opnd in safe mode and added to more accounts
one is “shubham” which i put as standard account coz unable to put it as administrative account now 🙁
and another one is “Guest”
now i restart my pc again n now logon screen showing this 2 accounts “shubham” and “guest” only … n not showing login for administrative account ….
so do i want to repair win7 using cd
or format it
or what can i do without above 2 things to work it as before ..
while typing this question
i got quik idea to try
and worked suprbly
follow if having same problem
go to safe mode
add stndrd acnt with any name
add pswrd to it
try to change type as administrator (it won’t b change bt the magic is here .. it will help to enable administrator and will put same password to administrator account n we want the same )
now restrt pc again
go to “safe mode with cmd prmt”
it will now show 2 accounts i.e. the standrd one u hv created and 2nd one is administrator
jst click on administrator and put the passwrd of ur created standrd acnt
now in cmd prmt box type below
net user administrator /active:yes
and u r done
now rstrt again n loging with administrator with same psswrd….
enjoy
Good Thread Post …
two thumbs up for this
people could not understand , even we are running command prompt as admin still we are getting access denied , please help
tell us exactly what you are doing when you run command….step by step..then we can help you
I get System error 5 has occurred.
Access is denied.” and when i get command prompt or Ur above step to enable run administrator, “yes” is not enable only “NO” how i get solution pls help me?
This command is for active the administrator account: “net user administrator /active:yes”
This command is for de-active the administrator account: “net user administrator /active:no”
If you get this following error message “system error 5 has occurred – Access is denied” while running this command, that means you have not started your command prompt window with administrative privileges or your account doesn’t have the administrative rights to do this which you have logged in right now. So please make sure, you are running command prompt with “Run as administrator” option by right click on that.
Please revert back for any further help.
Thanks
Error message:
is there a way to do it on a standard account ?
sir i start cmd prompt as run as administrator but after it i also getting access is denied
I cannot log on any longer but your trick requires log-in. Eventually I managed to enable the built-in administrator account offline by booting into PCUnlocker Live CD. Thank you!
My Administrator account is disabled but in very bad way..we system starts it shows only user account and i have tried every solution provided on internet….it seems that it is deleted permanantly
Ok thanks. The only solution about my problem is to boot again windows.
I have the same problem but my account haven’t administator permissions. Please help
If your account have not the admin rights then you can’t do that. Sorry, It is possible on admin account.
After doing all these also still i am not able to disable or enable the administrator account and not able to install any software also.
Please help me.
can someone please answer ‘Cosmic Rocket’s question please? Apparently, I have the same problem too…..
You got error 5 message that means you haven’t run “command prompt” window without administrative mode. To solve that error 5 message you have to start “Command prompt(CMD)” with “Run as administator” mode. Please follow above article again.
Here are the steps
1. Click on Start
2. Then click on All programs
3. Then click on Accessories
4. Find there command prompt
5. Run this command prompt with administrative mode (right click on that and choose “Run as administrator)
That’s it
can you explain why im still got denied ?ihave doing your step but still denied
Please check your user, Are you login into administrator account ? please login into administrator account the do it again.
Dude dont you get it dome of use cant run or log into a admin account do to it not being there when we try it says denied on cmd what do you do when this happens REMEMBER WE HAVE NO ACCESS TO ADMIN ACCOUNT! sorry for the caps but tired of seeing people not helping us when clearly we cant log in and need a way to get or accounts back to admin like they where before.
my admin is no active,yet,some of my pc programmes are lock within the admin. and i cant upgrade my anti-virus for the worst of it. pliz help me,thanks.
merci
Thanks. !!! It worked
“I get System error 5 has occurred.
Access is denied.”
I get this even when opening command prompt as administrator :(.
System error 5 means you don’t have admin rights.
i get system error 5 has occured.access denied when i type net user Administrator/active:yes and no both time error has occured
Please run your CMD with administrator privileges (Run as administrator).
Click on Start menu button then click on search box and type there; CMD. CMD will appear as in search result. Do right click on it and choose the option “Run as administrator” them type the command again “net user administrator /active:yes”. Make sure you type this command in the same format that we written here: net user administrator /active:yes
i do same but when i right click on that cmd and choose “Run as administrator” than that time also am getting yes are no permission access window is appear,but yes option is disabled.
so now tell me what will be do now……plz help me……
It means you are not an administrative privilege user account. And without administrative privileges you can do anything. Sorry we can’t help you on this particular situation.