How to remove administrator account created at startup

[tanebhan]

When logging into XP Pro for the first time, you're prompted to create an Administrator account. However, this account seems to be an account in the Administrator Group, and NOT the 'Administrator' account, correct?

So after this initial setup, you now have 2 accounts. One is the 'Administrator' account with a blank password, and the other is a User account that's in the Administrator Group. Is there any way to delete this User account in the Administrator Group so that I only have the 'Administrator' user? I couldn't figure out how to do this. XP keeps telling me to assign Admin rights to another user before deleting this account which doesn't make sense since the 'Administrator' user has these priviledges.

Am I right here, or am I not understanding something? I don't want to have 2 admin accounts. I just want 1 Administrator, and 1 User w/ limited rights account. How do other people handle this? Thanks!

 

[porkchopexpress]

You can logon as the administrator account and then delete the other account from the computer management console, or just remove that account from the admins group and make that your restricted user.





When you are the IT director, it's your job to make sure the IT works. If it does work they know already and if it doesn't, they don't want to hear your pathetic excuses.

 

[linney]

The built-in Administrator is a bit like a "Safety Net", mainly used via Safe Mode and not really for day to day computer use.

Ideally you should have an Administrative user (like you have now) for the administrative tasks as they apply during your normal computing operation.

The mundane daily running should be left to a Limited user, with restricted access to the sensitive parts of the system. You should not surf the Net as an Administrative user because anything nasty that comes into your machine would have access to everything and everywhere on your machine. Instead of just fouling up the Limited user's account it will foul up the whole machine.

 

[tanebhan]

Thanks for the tips. Yeah, my plan was to have the Administrator account for handling all the maintenance work, and then to have a User with limited rights for surfing, doing work, etc.

I just didn't want to have an Administrator, a User in the Administrative Group, and a User with limited rights. I mean, I guess it's not more work, but I just wanted to have two users instead of three.

 

[wolluf]

If its XP pro, you can do what you want to. Download and install tweakui for XP, and on the logon option you can add the Administrator account to the welcome screen (btw, hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del twice at welcome screen brings up old style logon box, where you can type in Administrator). Now logon to Administrator and change the other account to limited.

If its XP Home, you can't as Administrator account logon is only available in Safe Mode.

 

[tanebhan]

Cool. Yeah, it's XP Pro. I already ran through these steps to have the Administrator account show up:

1. Launch Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList in the Registry Editor.
3. Double-click the Administrator key in the right pane.
4. If the Administrator key doesn’t exist, right-click on the above tree in the pane, choose New, DWORD Value, name it Administrator and press .
5. Type 1 in the “Value data” box, and press .


Yeah, I'll probably login with this account and then delete the user account with Admin priviledges that was created with the initial setup.

linney, what's your reasoning for keeping the user account with admin priviledges? I figure that I would just want 1 Admin account (the actual Administrator account) because that's 1 less account that I need to audit. Am I right?

 

[linney]

My reason is probably no more than that is the way Microsoft intended it to be, the way they ensured you setup things when you first installed the operating system. Like I said it is a bit of a Safety Net in case your one and only Administrative account gets corrupted leaving you with no Built-in Administrator to fall back on.

For me the Built-in Administrator only sees the light of day in Safe Mode, or in the Recovery Console, or sometimes with use of the RunAs command. Even the created Administrative user sees very little action.

Running with 1 + 1 as you intend to may be OK for most situations. Microsoft have already showed their intentions by disabling the Built-in Administrator from running in Normal Mode in XP Home, and completely disabled it in Vista, including Safe Mode. They do enable it in Vista when upgraded from XP, if, as in your case, there is no other Administrator user.

I guess it comes down to personal choice and what you are comfortable with.

 

[porkchopexpress]

linney when is the administrator user available now in vista, or have they gone down the OSX route and completly locked it out?





When you are the IT director, it's your job to make sure the IT works. If it does work they know already and if it doesn't, they don't want to hear your pathetic excuses.

 

[linney]

porkchopexpress,

THIS IS ONLY VISTA INFORMATION.


Built-in Administrator Account Disabled

http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsvistasecurity/archive/2006/08/27/windowsvistasecurity_.aspx

You can enable the Administrator via Computer Management as you would any other disabled User or Group.

There is also this GPO to play with.

Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Security Settings | Local Policies | Security Options

User Account Control: Run all users including Administrators as standard users - Disable

User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt - No Prompt

 

[1PG]

Tanebhan, it looks like these replies from 'Technical users' is a little too technical.

The answer to your question is to delete the unwanted account through Computer Management.

In Control Panel click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools and then double-click Computer Management.
In the pane on the left side expand System Tools, expand Local Users and Groups, single-click the Users folder.
In the pane on the right side, right-click on the unwanted account and select delete.
You do not receive any silly messages that you need more than one account in the administrators group and the account gets deleted.

 

[tanebhan]

Cool. Thanks. Yeah, I did it and it works. For some reason, it only gives that other message if you want to delete the account by going to Control Panel->Users. The Computer Management way worked fine though. Thanks.