Administrator privileges?

[I Shooter]

I wet to up date my wife's computer and was told that I needed administrator  privileges. Her lap top has Windows 7. How do I get administrator privileges? There is only one account on her lap top and that is hers. Thanks for the help.

[talontromper]

The easiest way to enable or disable the Windows 7 build in administrator account
is from the command line. Open a command prompt with administrator rights.
This is done by right-clicking on the command prompt icon in the Windows 7 start
menu and selecting Run As Administrator from the available options.

To enable the Windows 7 administrator account:

net user administrator /active:yes

To disable the Windows 7 administrator account:

net user administrator /active:no

To change the password of the Windows 7 administrator account:

Net user administrator password

Next, log off your wife's account and log onto the admin accout.
A word of advice.... after doing this disable the new administrator account this is a hidden account that is not typically needed by most users and pose a security risk if left on without a password. So, when done installing W/e you need to disable the account as stated above

[Allan]

If hers is the only account then just boot it up and you'll be the admin.

[I Shooter]

I just up dated every thing with out changing any thing. Then when I finished a box came up from Super Anti spyware that said I needed to up date. When I click on it it tells me,(the update must be done from an administrator privileges. The box closed I bring up Super anti spyware click on up date and it tells me it is up to date. All is well with the world. If it keeps giving such I will remove it and reinstall. Thank you much for your time and help. Oh I didn't understand what you meant by right-click on command prompt. Where is the command prompt icon? Are you talking about the start button? Or are you talking about the search box when you click on the start button? Please explain.

[talontromper]

what he mean was go to the start button and the go to all programs then go to accessories, system tools, command prompt..... then right click, run as admin 

[I Shooter]

Very good. I understand now. According to the computer she is the administrator.

[BC_Programmer]

Very good. I understand now. According to the computer she is the administrator.

Windows Vista and 7 sort of changed what it means to have an account that is an administrator.

When you log on, you are given a user token- this basically says what you can and cannot do. With Vista and 7, when you originally log on, it gives you a "stripped down" token, that denies access to a number of things. The "full" token (that is, the one that has all the admin privileges and so forth) is only accessible by either UAC or using the "run as administrator" option.

[Allan]

I find this an invaluable utility in W7: http://www.blogsdna.com/2173/add-take-ownership-option-in-right-click-context-menu-of-windows-7.htm

[killerb255]

Windows Vista and 7 sort of changed what it means to have an account that is an administrator.

When you log on, you are given a user token- this basically says what you can and cannot do. With Vista and 7, when you originally log on, it gives you a "stripped down" token, that denies access to a number of things. The "full" token (that is, the one that has all the admin privileges and so forth) is only accessible by either UAC or using the "run as administrator" option.

...or logging in with the built-in Administrator account.  By default, it's disabled unless no user account is created during installation (which is possible through the use of an answer file with SkipUserOOBE and SkipMachineOOBE set to true).

Using the built-in Administrator account, UAC can be set to any level, and you'll never get a single UAC prompt!  Everything runs with admin privileges a la XP. 

The same thing is true in Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, even with Active Directory--the built in domain administrator account is disabled as well, and when enabled, no UAC prompts.

[BC_Programmer]

...or logging in with the built-in Administrator account.  By default, it's disabled unless no user account is created during installation (which is possible through the use of an answer file with SkipUserOOBE and SkipMachineOOBE set to true).

Using the built-in Administrator account, UAC can be set to any level, and you'll never get a single UAC prompt!  Everything runs with admin privileges a la XP. 

You say that like it's a good thing.

There is a reason smart Linux users never run as root when they can help it.

Besides, you don't need to run as the administrator account to do that. you can simply disable UAC altogether- now, even though your programs will still be running with a stripped token, elevation is as simple as a function call! Now that's security!

[+Asking]

To enable the Windows 7 administrator account:

net user administrator /active:yes

To disable the Windows 7 administrator account:

net user administrator /active:no

To change the password of the Windows 7 administrator account:

Net user administrator password

Your most likely to get "error 5" if you attempt to do that.

[killerb255]

You say that like it's a good thing.

There is a reason smart Linux users never run as root when they can help it.

Besides, you don't need to run as the administrator account to do that. you can simply disable UAC altogether- now, even though your programs will still be running with a stripped token, elevation is as simple as a function call! Now that's security!

True.  In general, it's not a good idea to run as administrator on any OS if one can help it.

However, look at what happened when Microsoft decided to enforce this best practice with Vista (and 7) UAC: annoyed users.  People don't like change and one of the reasons Vista got so much negative flak was because of this.  I guess there really is no such thing as "convenient security"...

Perhaps I should have phrased this as a "last resort" option rather than "Annoyed?  No problem!  Run as the built-in administrator!"  It's definitely not something I would recommend to the average Joe.  Power users, sure, but only with the disclaimer that if something goes wrong, it's on them...