Hi, Thank you for the post. MS does not provide the solution to enable or reset password to Administrator account. Like others mentioned, you could boot from third party disk to achieve it. Just search forgot administrator password in Google site. If there are more inquiries on this issue, please feel free to let us know. RegardsRick Tan TechNet Community Support

I don't have permission to download it. Oh fiddle!Stephen W Plunkett

The properties box for my Windows Server 2008 R2 built-in administrator program says the account is disabled. Even the primary user account has virtually no priveliges. How can I, with a mere primary user account available at logon, enable the built-in administrator account, or otherwise grant my primary user account administrator priveliges? Windows Server 2008 R2 denies my primary user account access/permission for nearly all changes to accounts, programs and OS features. Stephen W Plunkett

You can use DaRT from MDOP to reset the administrator account's password. Create a Dart media and boot from it. There is a feature called Locksmith, that is what you want to use. More detailes here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee532075.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/mdop/archive/2011/04/04/diagnostics-and-recovery-toolset-dart-7-beta-released.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/products-and-technologies/mdop/default.aspxMCTS - Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. http://mariusene.wordpress.com/

I got this error message :d414db51-81fd-4e72-a8b3-8f493bea515e Stephen W Plunkett

Oh, I forgot to ask, do you need a version of Microsoft Desktop Optimization Package to run this? I don't. Is there a trial download you'd recommend?Stephen W Plunkett

You could use "Offline NT password & registry editing" too. When you reset the password, it will detect if locked and it will unlock it. (http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm) It work pretty good, just hope it find your disk controller when it will boot. Can I ask if it's a DC your server ? If yes then don't try my link, you will have to make some recover step.MCP | MCTS 70-236: Exchange Server 2007, Configuring

Hi, Thank you for the post. MS does not provide the solution to enable or reset password to Administrator account. Like others mentioned, you could boot from third party disk to achieve it. Just search forgot administrator password in Google site. If there are more inquiries on this issue, please feel free to let us know. RegardsRick Tan TechNet Community Support

The properties box for my Windows Server 2008 R2 built-in administrator program says the account is disabled. Even the primary user account has virtually no priveliges. How can I, with a mere primary user account available at logon, enable the built-in administrator account, or otherwise grant my primary user account administrator priveliges? Windows Server 2008 R2 denies my primary user account access/permission for nearly all changes to accounts, programs and OS features. Stephen W Plunkett In some of the organisations, default admin accounts on member servers are purposefully locked/disabled through group policy for security reasons. If you know the password for locked out/disabled admin account then there is a possibility of unlocking/re-enabling the account without using any third party tools. To do that, Restart the server Press F8 and select Safe Mode Without Networking Log on to the server with locked out/disabled admin account with its password. If you could successfully log on to the server then you will have option to unlock and enable the built-in admin account ! Most of the downtime's are caused because of SysAdmin's curiosity ! - Santosh