How in the Tech

Enabling the Administrator Account in Vista

By Adam Myers ⋅ October 31, 2008 ⋅ Tags: System Administration, Vista

Part of Microsoft’s secure computing initiative in Vista includes the disabling of the local administrator account. The rationale is that if would be hackers knew the account name they only needed to guess the respective password before further damage could be done. With a disabled administrator username, hackers or even malicious scripts need to determine the username that holds admin privileges as well as the accompanying password. It’s a minor change really that sounds better on a bulletted security features list than in practice. Nonetheless, I will never be one to fault Microsoft in working to improve security in their product.

The other day I got an email from a reader that asked about enabling the local administrator account in Vista. While I’m not entirely sure why this would be necessary – I’ll update this post if the user answers my reply – the process is pretty simple.

1. In Vista, click Start and right-click on Computer then choose Manage.



2. From the left hand menu expand Local Users and Groups and select Users.



3. You’ll see Administrator in the right hand panel. Right-click on it and choose Properties.



4. Now uncheck the box next to Account is disabled. Now on the Vista Welcome Login screen you should see the Administrator username as one of your login options. Easy!