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How to login as administrator in Windows 10?

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When you make a fresh installation of Windows on your PC, you’re asked to create an account with your username and password. This is the account you’ll be using but it’s different from the administrator account that already exists in Windows. 

There are a number of reasons why you would want to log in with an administrator account. There might be some universal settings that you might want to change, modify the OS or install software for all users, among other things.

When you’re using the administrator account, you do not get the UAC prompt when running or installing applications in administrator mode. 

The administrator account in Windows 10 is hidden by default. So you’re going to have to enable it before you log in and here’s how you can do that.

Also Read: How to enable Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) in Windows 10?

Enabling the built-in Administrator account in Windows 10

There are a number of ways of doing this and one of them includes using the command prompt which is perhaps the easiest.

Step 1: Right-click on the Start icon in the taskbar to open the options menu.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 2: Now type in the following command to enable the hidden administrator account.

net user administrator /active:yes
How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 3: As an additional precaution, let’s go ahead and set up a password for our administrator account as well. Type in the following command.

net user administrator *
How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology
Setting a password for your administrator account is highly recommended

Also read: How to make VLC the default player on Windows PC?

How to disable the in-built administrator account?

If you’d like to disable the built-in administrator account, simply start up your command prompt with admin privileges as mentioned before and type in the following command

net user administrator /active:no

And that’s about it; you won’t see the administrator account on the login screen anymore.

Converting a standard account into an Administrator account or creating a new one

Alternatively, you can also convert your existing account into an administrator one. If you ever need to create a new administrator account or need to manage multiple ones, you’re going to have to use this method.

Step 1: Head over to the Control Panel. The simplest way to do so is to simply search for it in the Start menu.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 2: Click on User Accounts.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 3: Click on Change account type.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 4: You’ll be asked to choose an account. If you’re looking to make a new administrator account, you can click on the Add a new user in PC settings link at the bottom and come back to this step.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 5: Click on Change the account type.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 6: Here you can set your account as either a Standard or Administrator account. Since we’re looking to make an admin account, select Administrator and click on Change Account Type.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Now that you’ve enabled the administrator account and set up a password, all you need to do is log out of your current account and log back in with the administrator one. 

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Also Read: Top 7 iTunes alternatives for PC

How to delete an administrator account?

Deleting an admin account is the same as deleting a standard one. Here’s how

Step 1: Head over to the Control Panel.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 2: Click on User Accounts.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 3: Click on Remove user accounts.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 4: Select the account you’d like to remove .

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 5: Click on Delete the account.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 6: Windows will ask if you’d like to keep the files from the account. In this case, I’m going to delete the files by clicking on Delete Files.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Step 7: There will be one final check. Just click on Delete Account and you’re good to go.

How to login as administrator in Windows 10? | Candid.Technology

Also read: How much RAM do you need in 2020?

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Yadullah Abidi

Yadullah is a Computer Science graduate who writes/edits/shoots/codes all things cybersecurity, gaming, and tech hardware. When he's not, he streams himself racing virtual cars. He's been writing and reporting on tech and cybersecurity with websites like Candid.Technology and MakeUseOf since 2018. You can contact him here: [email protected]

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