| Rodney -> Vista Administrator: activating (Oct. 10, '06, 2:52:08 PM) |
Vista as it ships does not have the Administrator account enabled
or active. This is a regular pain (as in PITA) when trying to get
administrative task done. Because the Vista Administrator account is
not actually active (it's disabled) some things don't work so well.
Here are the steps to active the Administrator account on Vista.
The steps are convoluted because that the way MS makes it.
Logon as a user that is in the Administrators group to do this.
1) You need to make a change in the registry. But you need to run
as Administrator to do it. A bit of a catch-22, eh?! From the Start
Menu find the "Command Prompt" and right click on it. From the popup
menu select "Run as Administrator". A Command window should start.
If a Windows security windows opens select to allow this action.
2) From the Command window run the "regedit" program.
3) Go to the key HKLM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/WinLogon.
Now add (from the Edit menu) a new key (yes, a "key", not a DWORD). Name this
new key "SpecialAccounts".
4) In HKLM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/WinLogon/SpecialAccounts
create a key named "UserList".
5) In HKLM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/WinLogon/SpecialAccounts/UserList
create a new DWORD entry (not a "key" this time). Name this entry "Administrator" and
set the value to "1" (value/digit one).
6) You can now exit from regedit.
7) Now the Administrator account will appear with the other user accounts. But it
won't be active yet. It will still be disabled. You need to enable it. From the
Control Panel select Administrative Tools and then select Computer Management.
The Computer Management panel will appear. Select "Users and Groups" followed
by "Users". Double-click on the "Administrator" account. Make the box with
"Account is disabled" be clear (no check mark). Click "OK" to save this.
8) You should now set the password for Administrator. Right click the entry
for the Administrator account and select "Set Password..." from the pop-up
menu. Follow the directions.
Your done.
You don't want to run the "User Accounts" link in the Control Panel. It'll
just frustrate you because it is "dumbed down" and doesn't have the choices
needed for real changes.
If you want, you can get the Computer Management to start from a Command Prompt.
Start a fresh Command window and run "compmgmt.msc /s".
More pains to overcome:
To set a fixed IP address it a confusing maze to find the right GUI. This
is another failure of the Vista organization and interface. I'm writing
this because I've just about blown a gasket after installing Vista for the
fourth time and it's still coming across as a muddled organization designed
to hide key controls. Is this deliberate incompetence?
Anyway... Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> Manage Network.
Now you get an actual list of the devices on your machine that you can
change. Open properties on a device. This opens the "Local Area Connections
Properties". Make your settings as needed.
To join a domain: Control Panel -> System -> Advanced system settings gives
you the Systems Properties menu. Now it's the usual change actions.
To change screen setting: Control Panel -> Personalization -> Display Settings
"Personalization" is grossly vague when I'm look to change the display or monitor
settings. |
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