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I have a Windows 7 64-bit computer. There was only one account (mine, created at installation, password protected, full administrative access with UAC enabled).

To speed up the startup + login process I went to control userpasswords2 and unchecked that users need to enter password. By this operation my account has been changed to Guest type and an Administrator account has been created. This Administrator account has a small overlay icon with a downwards pointing arrow.

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My original password did not work; if I try leaving the password blank it says something like "Your account has been disabled. Contact your administrator."

Contacting myself surprisingly did not help. As my account (which I am still able to access) is Guest, I have no rights to do anything. Is there a way to get my access back without reinstalling?

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  • Use another windows install and access the registry through it. If I am not mistaken all user account settings are stored there and can be modified.
    – Tomasi
    Apr 25, 2010 at 3:19

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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I'm curious how your account became a guest account. That sounds like uncharacteristic behavior.

First, try booting into Safe Mode by pressing F8 before the windows boot animation appears. By default, the built-in administrator account will be enabled when you boot into safe mode. Try logging into it, then you can reset the permissions on your original account from there, then reboot into normal mode.

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  • Thank you I am Admin again :) My guess is that the account became guest when I switched the automatic logon on - to prevent administrator account being automatically loged into on startup, I did not do it manually.
    – Lukas
    May 10, 2010 at 14:45
  • Glad it worked for you! That is odd that it would change the account status - I've never seen that happen before. Generally speaking, it's advisable to have your main account be a non-admin account, and only elevate to an admin account when you absolutely have to - it's better for security. You might want to set it up like that to have a separate admin account, then have the normal account auto-logon.
    – nhinkle
    May 11, 2010 at 5:21
  • I know, but its quite annoying to switch the accounts all the time and with UAC enabled its not really admin account all the time...
    – Lukas
    May 11, 2010 at 14:04
  • Fair enough. I was thinking it might help solve your auto-login problem. At least with UAC though it's easy to elevate when you perform an administrative action without switching accounts, unlike in XP where you had to log off and log in as the other user. But yes, that makes sense.
    – nhinkle
    May 12, 2010 at 3:07
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You probably want the Windows Recovery Environment - an enhanced replacement for the Recovery Console, which was introduced with Vista. You can get to it by booting from your Windows installation media.

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Grab a copy of Ophcrack off the net and make a bootdisk. It should tell you your passwords pretty easily and you might be able to get into the administrator account and change things.

(just an idea)

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