Aug 31, 2016 Applies to: Windows 7. Select Product Version. An administrator is someone who can make changes on a computer that will affect other users of the computer. To log on as an administrator, you need to have a user account on the computer with an Administrator account type. If you are not sure if the account that you have on the computer is an. May 07, 2012 Update (September 2017): We turned this question into an article on How to Obtain Admin Privileges on Windows How to Get Admin Rights on Windows How to Get Admin Rights on Windows Do you need to get administrator privileges on your PC? We show you what's restricting your admin rights and how to recover control over Windows. I have only one user listed on my computer. Aug 14, 2018 This wikiHow teaches you how to give yourself administrator privileges on a Windows computer. In order to do this, the computer in question must currently be logged into an administrator account. If this is the case, you can enable a hidden 'Administrator' account that you can then use to give yourself administrator privileges at any time.
You must have noticed, there are often, many programs installed on your machine that require administrative rights to start. Having admin rights lets you make changes to the system, that can affect all other users. In other words, any program that you decide to run as administrator, lets it more access to the computer when it runs.
The User Account Control notifies you before changes are made – not all changes, but only those which require administrator level or elevated permissions. Whenever you run some programs, you may get to see the UAC Prompt first. Only after you give your consent, will the program run. This is a security feature in Windows. The key lies in understanding what can be done and how changes to admin rights or elevated privileges can be achieved without compromising security.
Let us see the various options and scenarios.
Open elevated Command Prompt window
While you can carry out many tasks using the CMD, some tasks required elevated privileges to carry out. Windows 8.1 lets you easily open Command Prompt (Admin) using the WinX menu. This post shows how you can run Command Prompt as an Administrator.
Read: How to create shortcut with elevated privileges to run a Program.
Make program always Run as Administrator
If you want to make a program always run with admin privileges, right-click on the program’s executable file, select Properties. Here, select the Run this program as an administrator box. Click Apply > OK. This post will show you in detail, how to make applications always Run as Administrator.
Turn off Admin Approval Mode using Secpol
Windows 7 Administrator Privileges
Run secpol.msc to open the Local Security Policy and navigate to Local Policies > Security Settings. In the right pane you will see a setting User Account Control: Turn on Admin Approval Mode. Double-click on it and select Disabled.
This policy setting controls the behavior of all User Account Control (UAC) policy settings for the computer. If you change this policy setting, you must restart your computer. The options are:(1) Enabled. (Default) Admin Approval Mode is enabled. This policy must be enabled and related UAC policy settings must also be set appropriately to allow the built-in Administrator account and all other users who are members of the Administrators group to run in Admin Approval Mode. (2) Disabled. Admin Approval Mode and all related UAC policy settings are disabled. If this policy setting is disabled, the Security Center notifies you that the overall security of the operating system has been reduced.
Mind you, this WILL downgrade your computer’s overall security!
Grant Elevated Privileges in Windows 10/8/7
A Standard user does not have any special permission for making changes in the server administration. He may not have the following privileges: Adding, deleting, modifying a user, shutting down the server, creating and administering Group Policy Object, modifying file permissions, and so on.
But a user with admin rights, can do much more than the standard user. The rights however, are granted after he is given elevated privileges for each level in one of the groups viz, Local Server, Domain and Forest.
When a user is added to one of the groups they get extra power to do more than the standard user. They get extra User Rights. These are the rights or configurations that control “who” can do “what” to the computer. When configured, each computer can support a unique set of administrators controlling different areas of that computer.
There are over 35 user rights per computer. Some of the most common user rights that control elevated privileges over a computer are listed below:
Program Needs Administrator Privileges
Shut down the system
Force shutdown of remote system
Log on as a batch job
Log on as a service
Backup and Restore files and directories
Enable trusted for delegation
Generate security audits
Load and unload device drivers
Manage auditing and security log
Take ownership of files and other objects
The user rights are deployed using Group Policy (Local/Active Directory). This paves the way for controlling the access to servers in a consistent manner.
Moreover, each file, folder, and Registry key has an Access Control List (ACL). The list provides standard permissions, like
Full control
Modify
Read
These standard permissions enable easier configuration over the objects. In short, ACL is a sort of list of users, groups, and/or computers that are granted permissions over the object associated with the ACL. You can read the full details about this, Active Directory Delegation, Group Policy Delegation and more, at this excellent post on WindowsSecurity.com. It discusses how to grant elevated privileges over Active Directory and a Server.
These how-to’s may also interest you:
Take Full Ownership of Files & Folders.
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Since the last month, I have come around many users who have lost administrator rights on their Windows 10/8/7 PCs, and thus they were not able to manipulate their system or make changes to it. One common thing I found regarding the issue is that the users who have lost their administrator rights have only a single account on their system, which was, of course, the administrator account. As a result of losing the admin rights, you may have issues in using Windows Apps, making new or modifying Windows configuration settings in Control Panel, using Snap-ins and several other problems on your system.
It thus becomes imperative for us to get the administrator privileges back anyhow if we want to run the system without road-blocks. But how do you get back these privileges since for every operation you have to carry out, requires the administrative rights itself, which we have lost, unfortunately? While performing a Refresh or Reset will fix the problem, you may want to try out our suggestion first and see if it helps you.
Windows 7 Administrator Permission Not Working
Lost Administrator Rights in Windows
1.Press WinKey + Q, type user accounts, and click on the result.
Then select your User Account > Click Manage another account.
In the following window, click Add a user account option.
2. Now we have to create a local account user. So after clicking Add an account, click Sign in without a Microsoft account (Not recommended), then click Local account. Fill the details on the screen so appeared for adding a local account. Click Finish when done.
3. Press Windows Key + Q and type cmd, for the search results, click Command Prompt. Type the following the command and hit Enter key:
4. The previous step will result in your system to boot into Safe Mode. After getting into Safe Mode, press Windows Key + Q, type user accounts, and pick the same from results so appear. You would have now two accounts on your system; first your issued admin account and second the local account which you’ve created in step 2. Select the local account.
Now click Change the account type link in the following window:
Moving on, change the account status from StandardtoAdministrator. Click Change Account Type.
In this way, the new local account we’ve created has been changed to Administrator. Now you can restart your machine and log in to this account with administrator rights. Since you have administrative privileges now; so you can backup your documents from the old administrator account.
Windows 7 Administrator Privileges Not Working
Finally, delete the old admin account and switch to Microsoft account to synchronize your settings with a new administrative account. Your system will now act normally with full admin rights in your hand.
Change Admin Rights Windows 7
Post updated on: 2nd July 2014.
Additional thoughts by Anand Khanse, Admin:
Run your antivirus software first. Malware is known to sometimes block admin privileges.
Try using Clean Boot. If this makes the problem go away, see if you can identify the culprit.
If it does not help, you could boot into Recovery using Windows DVD or the Recovery partition and run System Restore to restore your computer to a prior point.
In the case of domain computers, check with your system administrator, if has applied any new restrictions.
This policy setting can be used by Domain Administrators to ensure that only select authorized users are allowed to become members of groups like, say, the Administrators group : Computer Configuration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Restricted Groups
See if you are able to activate the hidden super administrator account. Just in case you are able to, great – it will help you move forward. This is pretty useful if you find that you have locked yourself out your main account by accident and you want a back door entry.
Vasudev G, adds:
You can also try to use the iCacls command and see if it helps. This command-line utility that can be used to modify security descriptors and NTFS file system permissions.
Press Shift key and the Power button to restart your Windows PC. You will boot Advanced Menu options. Here click > Troubleshooting > Command prompt. In the CMD windowwhich opens, type the following command to reset permissions.
If nothing helps, then you may want to consider a System Restore or Refresh or Reset option.
Hope something helps you.
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