Well it looks like MS shot themselves in the foot again. Over night my system has changed so that my personal account is no longer an administrator even though it is still listed as one in Computer Management. In User Accounts it is set as a standard user and it cannot be changed to an administrator user. Why does MS keep screwing up Windows 7??? It is a great operating system other than the stupid things that they have done, like not being able to copy a configured user account to the default user and now this!!! My assumption is that they do not want corporate users anymore, they just want brain dead faux McIntosh home users! What they are going to do is force everyone to run as "The Administrator" instead of creating other user accounts, why did they drop the "Power User"? That was a very useful account, I know it's still there but it isn't the same! Mr. Ballmer, please retire and let someone with some brains take over this company before you totally screw it up!Ted McCarty

Hi Ted, Before moving on, I would like to know that how did this occur. Also, are there any other administrator accounts? If so, you may log in and use the other administrator account to add your current account into Administrators. Change a user's account type If there is no other administrator account, you may boot in safe mode. When the login screen appears, you should see the Built-in Administrator account. You can login using this account (it has no password, by default) and use it to change your normal account back to Administrator. If there are any error encountered, please let me know the detailed symptom. Regards, Sabrina TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees, and confers no rights. |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.

Hi Sabrina, this happened just the other day. I have both the standard Administrator account set up and my account was set as administrator. In Control Panel, Users and Groups I am in the Administrator group (I always remove the User group when I set an account as administrator, does "Most restrictive still apply?). In Control Panel, User Accounts it shows me as administrator but then when I open the account it is set to "Standard User". When I try to set it to Administrator the box goes from black to gray. I have a full backup of my drive before this happened and I am going to restore that tonight. I will let you know if it does it again. Please let me know if you find anything on this as I am setting up two new Dell laptops up for my granddaughters and I will need to know how to fix this if it happens to them. Ted McCarty

Hi Ted, I cannot reproduce this issue in my test machine. You may restore the computer to the point that the issue did not occur to check if it persists. Also, please check if there is any programs or updates installed before the issue occurred. Regards, Sabrina TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees, and confers no rights. |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.

Hi Ted, Does the issue persist after performing the system restore? If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let me know. I am happy to be of further assistance. :) Regards, Sabrina TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.comThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees, and confers no rights. |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.

Good Morning Sabrina, I did the restore last weekend and my system was again normal BUT it soon reverted back to the state where I could not change a standard user to and administrator. Now my granddaughter's new Dell laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium is set the same way. I am a loss as to why Microsoft would want to do anything this ignorant! You should always have at least one backup administrator on a system. They need to stop locking down Windows; they are just going to reinforce the refusal of companies to upgrade from XP to Windows 7. When did they stop thinking of their business customers? Don't they realize that probably half of those Windows 7 licensed PC that have been sold over the last two years are now running Volume licenses of XP? I can tell you for a fact that when I was working setting up new computers for the state department of corrections that every new PC, at least 2000, went from Windows 7 back to XP! I now work for a multi-national company and it is the same here. Every PC that they buy comes in with a Windows 7 license on it and goes to the user with XP Volume license OS on it. Ted McCarty

FWIW, I have the same problem on a new install of Home Premium with only Microsoft Updates installed and a few small things like Acrobat. Initially for installation ease the orignial account was left without a password. An account was added later with a password and the administrator type. That seems to be when the origianal account lost it's Administrative status and it could not be changed back. This isn't malware or anything else but stock Microsoft. It's a bug that needs correcting even if you can get by it with the use of the real "Administrator" account.

Hi John, this is what I have been trying to say all along and they just keep trying to confuse the issue. I KNOW HOW TO ENABLE THE ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT, I got my MCSE in 1996, been there and done ALL of that! The problem is when you create another user account you cannot promote it to administrator status. Thats why I am now running as the Administrator on my new HP PC. Not exactly a safe thing to do but they have forced it on me. They have completely forgotten that they have business users who really do need to have control of the PC. I work in an envionment where the desktop user MUST be a local administrator, I can still do that with XP but not with Win 7. I hate to think how bad Win 8 is going to be. It's really too bad that Linux is not usable in the business world, maybe then M$ would fire all of the EX-APPLE heads that are running the show and get back to making good operating software. If I wanted a MAC, I would buy a MAC. You can no longer create a real default user account that everyone will get when they log on because Bill Gates does not want to give up the $1.00 spiff he gets everytime one of us poor fools runs sysprep! OK, I have pissed them off enough. I will go away and continue to use XP for important work, it still works!Ted McCarty

I just wanted to note that I am having the same issue. The system tries to prevent me from deleting files or moving folders saying I have to b an administrator. My account always has been set to administrator. Now, in control panel it shows me as administrator but when I open the account it is set to standard user and it grays out the button when I try to change it to administrator.

Hey guys I experienced the exact problem Ted is describing. I don't know why yet, but it occurs once you enable the local administrator account in Local Users and Groups. If you disable the local administrator account the ability to promote another account to administrator returns. It looks like for whatever reason the ability to have multiple local administrators doesn't exist. This is extremely frustrating. For one thing if a user account is a member of the local Administrators group one should NOT have to search the OS for secondary permissions that override the group membership. Can anyone explain why this behavior exists? Steve