For reasons I don't understand, my thread "Emergency admin access?" is locked.I want to thank all who answered. It's good to know there is a way to get access using the DVD.I still like my idea of a second admin account that is not shown on the logon screen.I am interested in the reply by Bubbypcguy where he mentions using the net command. That would be a little simpler than my schemewhere I run regedit32.exeto unhide the hidden account, because Iwouldn't have to tinker with the registry.But I can't figure out how to run net.exeas a different user. Apparently when running as a different user, I can only run one command, so it must be the net.exe command. I set up a shortcut and put the command arguments (user Administrator /active:yes) after the program name, but it doesn't enable Administrator. When running net.exe from a shortcut, the window flashes briefly and goes away so I am unable to see the results. All I know is the Administrator account is still disabled.I can do it easily when I use "Run as Administrator". That allows me to start a command prompt. Unfortunately that method doesn't work when using a hidden account to gain admin access. It must be "run as different user".

Well, I stumbled on the runas command that I can run from the command line. Now I think my regedit method may be simpler. :) I managed to get runas to ask for a password and then a window flashed before my eyes. The Administrator account is still disabled though. A good thing about regedit is I can see what I'm doing even though I may not know what I'm doing. :)

Hi, Please try the tool ShellRunas: ShellRunas v1.01 Thanks. Nicholas Li - MSFT