Earlier today I installed Windows Server 2008 on my notebook and set it up as workstation per the instructions here: http://www.win2008workstation.com/wordpress/ After setting up everything I created a normal user account and edited gpedit.msc to give myself most permissions. I also went to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and removed the Administrator account from showing up at the login screen (per these instructions: http://www.win2008workstation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=793#p793). Afterwards I logged into my normal user account and intended to use it happily ever after. However, I didn't realize that Server still enabled UAC by default on nonadministrator accounts, so now not only can I not edit the registry back to the way it was but I can no longer log into the administrator account to disable UAC or get myself out of this mess. I need to find a way to access the administrator account without using the login screen, or find a way to edit the registry so that the administrator account will show up at the login screen. As of now I can get into the registry editor, but I can't edit the values or delete anything, as I get a message titled "Error Editing Value" saying "Cannot edit [name]: Error writing the value's new contents." Any help would be MUCH appreciated!

Looks like you have got yourself into a bit of a pickle. Not sure if this will help as I have never encountered something like this, but you can try using runas to open regedit as an Administrator: runas /user:mymachine\administrator regedit Then put in the default administrator password. Also, not sure if this works on Win2K8, but you can try running this to disable UAC, will need to reboot though: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f Good luck.Terry http://www.sucked-in.com

Thanks a bunch Terry--you are absolutely right, runas does work! This is the command I used: "runas \env \user:administrator regedit.exe Whew, what a relief! Will definitely be more careful next time.