Administrator on my own PC

[FLASH_111]

I've tried everything on the net to be the administrator on my own PC, but nothing seems to stick. I can't even delete a Image For DOS Image file without the "You need to be an administrator" popping up and asking me to "Retry".

Anyone have any idea's?

[Bill_To]

Hi @FLASH_111 

Welcome to the HP Forum.

It sounds like the PC is infected or you are using a limited user account.

You may have to back up data. Reinstall the operating system. The data backup would be suspect if you have malware.

You know how this could potentially go, restore the data to a new OS installation and you are infected again.

Regards

[Americal]

If you have Windows home versus pro then you will not be able to be the administrator. The administrator account is only for temporary use for safe mode on home versions of Microsoft Windows. Be the administrator and a login as the administrator and use the administrator account as your own account that's a regular thing would require you to upgrade to Windows Pro. That being said most people should not run as an administrator and almost everybody does but from a security perspective if you're not running as an administrator and you download a malicious program most likely it's not going to infect your system because it doesn't have the elevated privileges to do so but when we as the administrator because we don't like pushing the button to give for ourselves permission and typing in a password we automatically execute that little bad package and there it is so Microsoft's attempt to slow that down was by not making end users administrators right off the bat with home versions. If you have the home version of Windows 10 and discover that this is the problem, please mark this answer as resolved.

[FLASH_111]

Thanks Bill and Americal. I appreciate your remarks. I have Win 10 Pro and I'm supported with Nortons 360 with all it's bells & whistles & two firewalls. From the very beginning & B4 bringing the full OS system up I created Images with Image For DOS to a separate SATA & another full OS with Casper (to a USB Drive). So I can play with Any crazy kind of fix & still get back to a Good Safe System if the OS gets kinky. I have always been careful with my system security. I don't have any indications of malware but I've only been around for seventy five years, so I can imagine what the realities could be, if I was truely paranoia. I've built hundreds of PC's but haven't dabbled in software as much as I guess I should have, cause this is driving me nuts. I just can't seem to be able to successfully log on as administrator and don't have a clue why not. I feel pretty silly as it is, but Any ideas? Thanks much.

[Americal]

Try this. Go to the main Windows logon screen where you place your password and everything in. You're going to select restart down at the bottom corner but when you do hold the shift key down while it's shutting down when it when you go to click on that hold the shift key click on the shutdown button or actually restart and then when it drops all the way down you can let off it.

It's going to come up to a blue screen and ask you to log into safe mode see if you can log into the administrator account there. 

And can you verify the version of Windows 10 that you have is it the home version or the professional version? 

Even if it's the home version it should let you log into the administrator account when you do the step I said above and it should do it without a password. 

[Bill_To]

Hi @FLASH_111 

Maybe you can restore one of the image backups you made when the account was a member of the local admin group.

I still can't understand how your user account with admin privileges has been deprecated to a standard user account if you did not make this change.

That is very unusual.

You might think I am over reacting but I would lose all trust in my PC if this happened to me. I would disconnect this PC from the network. Probably rebuild the operating system if I could not restore a reliable OS image.

Try the safe mode option per @Americal . I don't know if this will work if a known and active user account in the local admin group no longer exists.

Regards