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I was wondering if it would be possible to enable the hidden account admin 

net user administrator /active:yes

With a parental controls account? When I try to run as admin it never works and needs a password. Please help!

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Are you saying you are a user under an account with parental controls, but you want to create a hidden admin account? – Dustin G. Aug 12 '11 at 20:32

closed as not a real question by Diago Aug 13 '11 at 15:59

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

2 Answers

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This trick has been around since Windows XP. There is a SpecialAccounts Key that probably already exists, but if you don't have it - it can be created.

In regedit:

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

If there is not a sub-key under Winlogon, right click on the Winlogon entry and select New > Key

Name this new Key SpecialAccounts

Right click on SpecialAccounts and select New > Key

Name this new Key UserList

With the UserList selected, right click in the right pane of regedit and select New > DWORD (32bit) Value

This new DWORD value will be the name of your account EG: Bob Dole or user93975 - whatever user name you want hidden.

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To make this new Key Userlist you will need an admin pass – user93975 Aug 12 '11 at 20:24
@user93975 so you don't want this hidden account to have a password? – Dustin G. Aug 12 '11 at 20:29
Nope. It's fine w/o one I just need to be able to hide and unhide it once I'm done using it to disable Parental controls. It's sort of like that cmd command with uses the net user but I can't run as admin because I have parental controls on my acc – user93975 Aug 14 '11 at 0:21
@user93975 so you are trying to circumvent the parental controls that have been placed on your account? – Dustin G. Aug 14 '11 at 4:02
Yes or get around it to download skype lol – user93975 Aug 15 '11 at 21:47
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up vote 1 down vote

I'm curious why you want to enable the hidden admin account in the first place? It's a well known attack vector, making your system less secure.

You can control Parental Controls from any admin account.

If you are using the Web console to control Parental Controls, you'll need to create a separate live account for each admin account and give them permission.

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I assume the user he is trying to enforce parental controls on may try to get through if they see the admin account... – Dustin G. Aug 12 '11 at 20:27
You can hide any user created account. Yet it is still more secure than the builtin one. – surfasb Aug 12 '11 at 22:56

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