Windows 10: Removed my own admin ability, unable to get it back

I have a home theater PC which I had operating with an admin level account. I figured it would be safest to remove this, so I removed my administrator rights and rebooted.

Now I have no accounts with admin rights!

I have only local accounts, none connected to Microsoft. How can I restore my admin rights?

I've looked at multiple online tutorials, but all require some sort of admin rights to begin with.

:)

 

how to get admin rights on my own computer?

that's not true

 

how to get admin rights on my own computer?

Hi Duncan,

I understand the inconvenience you are facing. Let me help you in resolving the issue.

I suggest you to follow the methods below and check if that helps.

Method 1

•Open an elevated command prompt

•Type takeown /U %username% /F %USERPROFILE% /R /SKIPSL (You may also need the /P <password>

•Once that completes type cacls %USERPROFILE% /T /E /G %USERNAME%:F

This should force you to be the owner of everything in your profile and grant you full access.

If the issue still prissiest, try Method 2.

Method 2

• 
  Press WinKey+ Q, type
  user accountsand click on the result.
  
• 
  Then select your User Account > Click Manage another account.
  
• 
  In the following window, click Add a user account option.
  
• 
  Now we have to create a local account user. So after clicking
  Add an account, click Sign in without a Microsoft account (Not recommended), then clickLocal account. Fill the details on the screen so appeared for adding local account. Click
  Finish when done.
  
• 
  Press Windows Key + Q and type
  cmd, for the search results, click Command Prompt. Type following command and hit
  Enter key: shutdown /r /o
  
• 
  The previous step will result your system to boot into
  Safe Mode. After getting into Safe Mode, press
  Windows Key + Q, type user accounts, and pick the same from results so appear. You would have now two accounts on your system; first you’re issued admin account and second the local account which you’ve
  created in step 2. Select local account.
  
• 
  Now click Change the account type link in following window:
  
• 
  Moving on, change the account status from
  Standard to
  Administrator. Click Change Account Type.
  

In this way, the new local account we’ve created has been changed to Administrator. Now you can restart your machine and log into this account with administrator rights. Since you have administrative privileges now; so you can back up your documents
from the old administrator account.

Finally, delete the old admin account and switch to Microsoft account to synchronize your settings with new administrative account. Your system will now act normally with full admin rights in your hand.

Hope the information helps. Please let us know if the issue persist and we will be happy to assist you further.

 

Okay, after a few hours of frustration I figured it out. Sorry if this is easy-peezy to the experts here.

Posting just for posterity...

1. Booted into Safemode with command mode. The ubiquitous but hidden Administrator account is visible here.
2. Entered this command to activate the Administrator account visibility:
net user administrator /active:yes
3. Booted into this Admin account, now visible, in Windows the regular way and changed my usual account back to Admin.
4. Entered this in a command prompt to disable the Admin account visibility:
net user administrator /active:no

Reasons why this was not as easy as portrayed on every online tutorial:

1. Safemode for Win10 looks so different from anything else I was accustomed to, it took a while to get into it
2. This PC came installed with Win8, then upgraded to Win10 online, so no physical media was available.
3. Some tutorials asked for recovery media, and my Win10 install refused to create recovery media for some reason
4. I had forgotten my Admin password because I had never set it. Hint: Hit ENTER if it prompts for one and it's never been set.
5. Attempts to boot into regular Safemode Administrator gave me a non-working Win10 Safemode. Specifically, it showed a standard windows screen with taskbar, but NOTHING worked.

 

Yes. by default the built-in Administrator account is disabled and has no password. Well done for sorting this out for yourself, and especially for remembering to disable Administrator once you'd finished using it.

You should be able to use the Recovery Media Creator to make a bootable USB (just type 'recovery drive' in the Cortana/Search box).

If that's not working for you, then you can use Microsoft's Media Creation Tool to make a bootable USB containing the full install media for Windows 10.