Windows 10: Windows 10: all accounts were changed to standard. No solution yet

[I have posted a similar question on answers.microsoft.com - no reply yet, I will repost them if any]

So, yesterday (Nov 7th 2019), I discovered that the only two accounts on my computer "admin" and "gh" were 'standard accounts'. They still are listed in the administrators group, though.

I tried to change the account type (Control Panel>…>User Accounts > Change Your Account Type) from Standard to Administrator. After I click on Administrator choice, the "Change Account Type" box is greyed out.What I tried not necessarily in that order is listed below: nothing I tried resolved the issue.

- make the (hidden) Administrator account visible
- use my local "admin" account to do the same changes
- restart in safe mode, use one of the admin/gh to either change the Account type of one of the account
- restart in safe mode, use the Administrator account to change the type of one of the account: The "Change Account Type" is NOT greyed out, but this does not resolved the problem: After reboot "admin" and "gh" are still "Standard"
- log in as Administrator in 'normal' mode (after a normal reboot). trying to change the account type as above, "Change Account Type" box is greyed out.

Microsoft support: the jury is still out:
- first try was really bad: the person asked me if I run a antivirus (yes, Avast, latest free version). Then he told me that reset to factory settings will solve the problem.
- second try was much better: the person seemed to know about the problem. Unfortunately my computer was installing a newer version of W10 (1903?). So we decided that I will call him again. Could not reach him...

So, in the meantime, I am counting on the community!

1. Has anyone solved this problem?

2. Can anyone suggest something (besides what has been tried already)?

3. Will a "reset Windows 10"-"Keep my files" help or could it worsen the situation? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...s-10-reinstall

4. Should I wait before doing anything (e.g., a patch will come up for a never-encountered-yet issue)?

5. I can't think of something I did that could create the issue. I suspect something was installed by Microsoft during the night (I had a message saying my computer would be rebooting). I do not shutdown at night but hibernate. When I turned the PC on Nov. 7th, it was a cold boot. When I tried to get the shutdown-restarttime from the Event log, the latter was starting only after the fresh install of the large update. Is there any way I can access the previous event log?

Versions/updates:

- Windows 10, build 18362
- I run Windows updates from time to time only (turned off automatic updates), I may have updated last week or the 3rd of November (at that time, I have updated 5 or so drivers). No issues running between then and today.
- Unfortunately, update history does not show more than yesterday's updates plus a couple from June-July (Dell) or Adobe (Oct 24).
- Besides a bunch of Office updates, the only Microsoft ones are : KB4517389 (tagged 07-Nov-2019 and KB4521863 (tagged >>08-Nov-2019<<)



Thanks in advance for your responses.



Gilbert

:)

 

changing standard account to administrative account

Hi Kiran,

These changes cannot be made with a standard account. Since you changed the administrator account to a standard one, you will not be able to make any changes that affect other users on the computer.

If there is another administrator account on the computer, we suggest to login using that account and change your account to administrative account.

Follow the steps below on how to change your standard account to administrative account:

1. On the desktop, press Windows key + X and select Control Panel.

2. Click on User Accounts in Large Icons View.

3. Click on Manage another account.

4. Click on the standard account.

5. Click on Change Account Type and select Administrator.

6. Click on Change Account Type button and restart the computer.

Let us know how it goes.

 

Account user mode changing issues.(Administrator/ standard)

Hi,

The User Account Control is a type of security that restricts unauthorized installation of apps and settings modification. You will normally encounter this notification if you are using a standard account. Since this is the issue that you have encountered
on your PC, we would like to ask for additional information to help us provide you the appropriate solution. Please answer the following:

• What command did you run when you changed the administrator account to standard?
• Do you still have another administrator account that you can log into?
• What build and version of Windows 10 are you using?
• What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?

We look forward to your response.

 

Strange Windows 10 User Account issue.

Unfortunately I had done those steps numerous reboots, it just, reappears for no good reason. The base account isn't even a Microsoft account, it's a local account.

I haven't quite tried the built in administrator account on W10, but so far in my experience on my own computer, the built in account seemed to have absolutely no more control than I did on my own.

It's just strange, I go in, it warns me twice about deleting the account, then it's gone. Reboot, and it's back?

EDIT: Just to specify, both command line and Netplwiz both say only HIS account exists on the computer, it doesn't list this rogue account. This is what I meant in my first post about the fact that even Windows doesn't seem to believe it exists, HALF the time. *Frown