Deleted Admin profile

[Folant]

Long story short, my dad's PC has no Admin profile. He apparently forgot his profile password a while ago and was using my mums profile to do his thing on the PC. He did something, which I'm not sure what it was, but it deleted the Admin profile. His reasoning was that "Maybe it would take the Admin password off.", but now the PC is left with no Admin and he can't download, etc.. (Says it needs Admin privileges, or something to that effect.)

I would suggest a simple format and reinstall, but the OS came pre-installed on the machine when he bought it. And can't access the restore to factory partition, for the same reason above. (Need Admin.) And they can't really afford to go to PC World and buy a new Windows disc.

Gonna go round and have a look in a bit, but likelihood is I'll be just as stumped. Is there any command or anything I can run on a normal user to restore Admin privileges, restore the profile and reset the password or anything? OS is Vista.

Cheers.

[Cephius]

You can't delete the true Administrator profile in Vista. Try logging into safe mode with the username Administrator and see if that lets you in. If not, try this:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...windows-vista/

Once logged in as the Admin, change the permissions on one of the local profiles so you can get admin rights back on them. Make sure you hide the Admin account once you're done.

[Kryssan]

If you're unable to elevate your own rights inside of Windows, there are discs you can make that will let you change/reset the Windows password. I used to use them at work since the old computers would have a variety of passwords for the local admin accounts.

[Folant]

Got it sorted.

Tried that article on howtogeek first, but UAC kept popping up asking for an admin password. Had to improper shutdown to get into safe mode too, wasn't appearing on the boot list pressing F8 on start up.

But yeah, thanks for that Cephius! I'd have probably ended up just installing Linux on his desktop and my mums lap top, and that would cause all manner of headaches. lol

[Pikarya]

But yeah, thanks for that Cephius! I'd have probably ended up just installing Linux on his desktop and my mums lap top, and that would cause all manner of headaches. lol

Tried this before, did not go well. Tried having my parents switch from IE to Chrome, was even worse.