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I have 2 accounts, one of them is just a normal Microsoft account that I log on to every day, the other one is administrator account I just hid with SpecialAccounts registry hack.

The problem is, what SpecialAccounts does is just disabling that account, and I have configured my UAC settings to highest possible, so if I do anything that changes system even slightly, I need to type administrator password. However, that I have actually disabled this administrator account, now nothing shows up on UAC warning/confirm screen, so I can't even revert back or anything.

Example of not being able to approve admin privilege. And no you can't take screenshot of this.

Am I totally screwed? Or is there a way to do something to get out of this jail?


What I've tried:

  • regedit requires admin prev.
  • UAC setting requires admin prev.
  • Cannot log into safe mode, you can only log in safe mode with an administrator account.
  • Using advanced restart options to get command prompt and net user only shows Administrator account (seems temporary)

Edit: This question is not a duplicate of What can I do if I forgot my Windows password?, I know all my passwords and I can log on to my disabled admin account on advanced boot options. This question is however pretty much an exact duplicate of Locked out of Admin Account but it's different version of Windows so I wrote my own question.

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  • Possible duplicate of Locked out of Admin Account - Super User
    – Q20
    Mar 1, 2016 at 7:39
  • If the Advanced Startup shows "Administator", then it's active. Are you able to select Administrator and open a command prompt window from there?
    – w32sh
    Mar 1, 2016 at 11:03
  • And once in there launch regedit.exe, load the SOFTWARE hive in your windows installation (windows\system32\config), and delete the SpecialAccounts key. Unload the hive
    – w32sh
    Mar 1, 2016 at 11:06
  • @w32sh It doesn't show up in Advanced Startup menu but when I do net user on a command prompt it only lists Administrator. My disabled admin account name is Elohim.
    – Q20
    Mar 1, 2016 at 11:06
  • Possible duplicate of What can I do if I forgot my Windows password?
    – Ben N
    Mar 2, 2016 at 18:29

4 Answers 4

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Note: you could reset a password with this too but please don’t there is a better way.

First, you'll need an install disk. If you don't have a USB install disk (it has to be USB because of secure boot), get an 8GB USB and turn it into an install disk by following the instructions here.

Next, you'll need to boot from this drive and enter the setup. You only need to get to the point after it asks you your language. Then, hold down Shift and press F10 on your keyboard. This should open a command prompt. If it doesn't, try Shift+Fn+F10. After you get to the command prompt, run these two commands:

net user /add admin

net localgroup administrators admin /add Next, shut down your computer with this command:

wpeutil shutdown Remove the install USB and turn your computer on. There should now be an administrator account named 'admin' with no password.

Let me know if this helped!

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Disclaimer: I have not tested this, but I recently used something similar to get out of a similar UAC-prompt-borked situation.

From a different machine on the same network:

  1. Download PsExec
  2. Run: PsExec -s -i \\(borked-machine-name) -u .\administrator -p (password) regedit.exe
  3. This should pop up a regedit window on the borked machine's desktop, with which you can undo your registry hack.

Or, to do it all remotely: PsExec -s -i \\(borked-machine-name) -u .\administrator -p (password) reg.exe delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts" /va /f

Either way, you'll probably need to logoff/logon for this to take effect.

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I know this is old but I think I have a simpler answer as long as the account isn't truly disabled. I'm not sure what special accounts does exactly in windows 10 but I did a similar thing in Win 7 by adding a "." to the beginning of the user name I believe which did not disable the account and hid it from the login screen.

Background: Occasionally running something as admin while not an admin will NOT ask for credentials on the UAC prompt in a domain environment. The way around this is to do one of two things:

  1. Hold shift on the keyboard and right click the program to get additional menu options, one of which is run as a different user where you would then enter your admin credentials.
  2. For system windows in Win10 you can't really do #1 from the start menu so another lifehack is to run cmd.exe as another user using method #1 and then call the command to open the system window you need. In your case compmgmt.msc or regedit should get you where you want to be with admin elevation to make any desired changes.

Again this only works if your admin account is not actually disabled. If you need to get the user name of the admin account, right click start and open computer management, go to users and groups > groups > open administrators > then look under the members tab to see who is enabled and is an admin. If you have none, the answer marked as answer is your best bet.

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Do Steps 1 & 2 here: https://4sysops.com/archives/reset-a-windows-10-password/ Then start Regedit.exe in the Command Prompt window, and select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

From the File menu, click Load Hive and select the "SOFTWARE" hive of your Windows installation (windows\system32\config), and delete the SpecialAccounts key. Unload the hive.

Exit Setup and restart Windows normally.

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  • Someone considered my response as not useful, with no reason specified. Booting using installation media and accessing Command Prompt (using SHIFT + F10) is one of the easiest methods to fix the problem.
    – w32sh
    Mar 1, 2016 at 14:57
  • You should, at least, transcribe what is written in the site linked so people could be informed even if that site goes down or link breaks. I will try your solution later when I have access to recovery media.
    – Q20
    Mar 1, 2016 at 20:41

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