No admin account

I have a new Acer laptop, purchased less than 2 weeks ago. And it seems that there is no admin account on the computer. I am seriously at my wit's end.
First I wanted to set up the security so it wouldn't ask for a password every time (the computer pretty much doesn't leave my living room, so I don't want that inconvenience). Couldn't manage it and a more or less living with it, though it's annoying.
Now I wanted to install software but can't because I don't have admin priveliges. I can't find an admin account on the computer and tried all the hacks online for activating one. I finally decided it's a new computer, there's nothing on it, I can just reset it and start from scratch. Can't do that because there is no admin account to give the priveliges to reset the computer!

I don't want to return it, but at this point it's barely a Chromebook since all I have the rights to do is use the internet. Any advice for creating/finding an admin account? I'm losing my mind.

Accepted answers

Leostat

The first user that was added to the PC would be the admin, as any user open up terminal and paste:
net localgroup administrators

This will tell you which users are in the admin group, usualy one called administrator which isnt active, and the other will be the username of the admin user

Was the PC brand new when you bought it or second hand? It should have showed you the splash / intro to windows when you first booted the laptop

Leostat

That is weird, there isnt the second account which there should be! Could you type
net user administrator

Do you remeber what you did to try and turn off the log in requirements? It looks like something has removed your account from the admin group

Leostat

Just to confirm this is a local machine and not part of a domain, such as a work machine or a school machine?

If so it looks like its foo-bar'd the install, the image does help

. So i think you can fix it by using safe mode. If you goto start -> Safe mode, and click the "Change advanced start up options".

Click the restart now button, and follow the on screen guides to get into safe mode. We need to get access to an admin terminal to add you back in.

Once in it, open the terminal and type
net localgroup administrators /add Kriem

This should add you back into the administrators

Leostat

That was just a guess at your username so half my bad, type
net user

this will get your username
then the net user add with your username and you should be good to go

Kendra_R

Wow! You fixed it! My gratitude to you forever.

Thank you so very much! I was so mad and didn't know where to turn. And now I feel like a wizard.

All comments

Leostat

The first user that was added to the PC would be the admin, as any user open up terminal and paste:
net localgroup administrators

This will tell you which users are in the admin group, usualy one called administrator which isnt active, and the other will be the username of the admin user

Was the PC brand new when you bought it or second hand? It should have showed you the splash / intro to windows when you first booted the laptop

Kendra_R

Thank you so much for helping me! I have no idea what's going on.

I bought the computer new and I remember it giving me the Windows intro when I started it up. I created an account and that was pretty much it.
I was frustrated by not being able to turn off the login requirements but moved on.
And now I can't install a word processing software, or probably anything else.
I entered the command you suggested and got this. So maybe there is an administrator account? I still don't have access to anything, though. When I try to install anything, it says I need to enter an administrator user name and password, but there is no space to do that. The only option is to hit NO.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/f9/z3zgnjulms9k.png

Leostat

That is weird, there isnt the second account which there should be! Could you type
net user administrator

Do you remeber what you did to try and turn off the log in requirements? It looks like something has removed your account from the admin group

Kendra_R

I don't remember what I did to turn off the login. Apparently I shouldn't have done it? It didn't seem like a big deal. I can say for sure that whatever I did took place in the "Sign-In options" menu of the control panel. I didn't even think to go into the terminal and mess with anything there and probably wouldn't have known how.

Here is what I see if I enter net user administrator. Does it help?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/3z/a54k0icxs8qx.png

Leostat

Just to confirm this is a local machine and not part of a domain, such as a work machine or a school machine?

If so it looks like its foo-bar'd the install, the image does help

. So i think you can fix it by using safe mode. If you goto start -> Safe mode, and click the "Change advanced start up options".

Click the restart now button, and follow the on screen guides to get into safe mode. We need to get access to an admin terminal to add you back in.

Once in it, open the terminal and type
net localgroup administrators /add Kriem

This should add you back into the administrators

Kendra_R

Yes, this is a personal computer, not linked to my job or anything like that.
I'll try your instructions. Thank you so much!

Kendra_R

Okay, now there's a new wrinkle. But I think it's progress!

When I restarted in safe mode, I got the option of signing in as myself (the Kriem user) or as administrator. I signed in as administrator and was able to enter the command net user administrator /active:yes. That one took, whereas it hadn't before.

But when I tried to enter net localgroup administrators /add Kriem, either logged in as the administrator or as my own profile, it said there was no such user or group.

As of now, I can log in either as myself or as administrator. So that's an improvement. But I'd rather not switch between profiles every time I want to make a change that requires priveliges.

Thank you so much for helping me through this!

Leostat

That was just a guess at your username so half my bad, type
net user

this will get your username
then the net user add with your username and you should be good to go

Kendra_R

Wow! You fixed it! My gratitude to you forever.

Thank you so very much! I was so mad and didn't know where to turn. And now I feel like a wizard.

Leostat

Blamo you did it 👍 Glad i could help and its all working again.

If you could whack the "yes" button (if its there) on the bottom of the posts which helped it will Mark the thread as solved!

Kendra_R

I hope I did it right. Apologies for any violations of etiquette I may have had. I really appreciate the help!

FrankWerner

When I tried: net localgroup administrator on my Acer Aspire SW3-016 (Win 10 Pro) I got:

-------------

System error 1376 has occured.

The local group does not exist.

------------

How to start / logon with an Admin account when you do not know / remember any password ?

Leostat

Hi, coul you open a new thread to go through troubleshooting, would be more than happy to help

it can be very involved, so it keeps things on track by keeping things to one thread

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