I want to enable the built-in Administrator account for Windows 7 Professional. When I try to activate the account I get the following message: "The password does not meet the password policy requirements. Check the minimum password length, password complexity and password history requirements." My belief is that there is no password currently set for the Administrator account (educated guess ). (I am in Local Users and Groups when I do this, but I get this message if I attempt this through the command line as well.) Next I attempt to change the Administrator password (right-clicking on Administrator in Local Users and Groups) and receive the following warning: "Resetting this password might cause irreversible loss of information for this user account. For security reasons, Windows protects certain information by making it impossible to access if the users password is reset. The data loss will occur the next time the user logs off." I click help and see that the type of information that will be inaccessible: Encrypted email (I don't care about this ) Internet passwords that are saved on the computer (still not worried as there should be no saved internet passwords for the account ) Files that the User has encrypted. <-- This is what makes me leary of trying to change the Administrator password. Again, all I want to do is enable the account. Will changing the password have any real negative effect, preventing me to use the Administrator account as intended? Is there a way to alter the password policy so that I can just enable the Administrator account as-is? Thanks in advance for any help!

Start by changing your local password policy so that your current password will meet the requirements. This Microsoft article should help. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration

I am unable to change the password policy, even though I am logged in as a user with Administrative privileges. Given that the Administrator password is empty, I would need to change the minimum password length to zero, correct? Would it just be easier to attempt to change the Administrator password and then see if I can enable it, and if I do change the password, what will be the repercussions (see warning in my initial post)? Thanks!

As you see, if you have encrypted files using this account, you may be unable to access them once the password is changed. I recommand to you to create a restore point for windows, to reset the administrator password and then to check if there is problems with your files enrypted using this account. If you detect problems, then restore your system using the restore point that you had created. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration