By default, the local administrator account is disabled in Windows 10. There are certain programs that require the user to be logged on with a local administrator account in order to install software or perform any action on the computer. Even if your regular user account is considered an “administrator” account, UAC will still prompt you when performing certain actions on the computer.
The built-in administrator account will not receive UAC prompts. In this article, I’ll show you how to enable the Administrator account so you can log in to it on Windows 10.
The first method – local users and groups
The first way to enable the built-in administrator account is to open local users and groups. You can do this by right-clicking Computer or This Computer and choosing Manage.
On the Computer Management screen, expand Local Users and Groups, and then click Users. You will see the administrator account in the right pane.
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Right click on the administrator account and select Properties.
Go ahead and uncheck the Account is disabled box. It is also recommended to set a password for the administrator account as it has unlimited access to the system. You can now log out of your current account and the administrator account will appear in the user list.
The second method – command prompt
You can also enable or disable the local administrator account via the command line. To do this, you need to open an elevated Command Prompt in Windows 10. To do this, click Start, type cmd, then right-click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.
A command prompt with elevated permissions will open. You can also get a UAC dialog where you just need to click Yes. At the command prompt, enter the following to enable the built-in administrator account:
net user administrator / active: yes
To disable the built-in administrator account, use the following command instead:
net user administrator / active: no
Third method – local security policy
The final way to enable or disable administrator account in Windows 20 is by using Local Security Policy. This option will probably only be available in Windows 10 Professional. To open Local Security Policy in Windows 10, go to Control Panel and click Administrative Tools. You may also want to change the view to small or large icons instead of categories.
In the left pane, click on Local Policies and then Security Options. The first item is Accounts: the status of the administrator account.
Double click the item and you can set the radio button to Enabled.
This is it! These are 3 different ways to enable and log into the built-in administrator account in Windows 20. If you have questions, please leave a comment and I’ll try to help. Enjoy!
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