Activate hidden Administrator with net user Administrator /active:yes Rgds Milos

Hi, I'm experiencing the same problem after rebuilding my system as described here. Starting a new thread since that one is over a year old and the marked answer, doesn't solve the problem. I installed Win 7 Pro as I've done many times. I created the initial admin account, and never deleted it or demoted it to a standard user. But when I go into Control Panel | Users, *all* users that I manage, have the "Standard User" radial button ticked. There, I am able to tick "Administrator", but then "Change Account Type" becomes grayed out. All that I've done since installing the OS is to install some apps to support my motherboard, drivers, video card, as well as Office 2010, and install all patches up to this month, which concerns me that one of the more recent security updates might be bugged? Although others have had this issue per the old thread, months ago. The funny thing is, I can create new accounts and designate them as local admins. All such accounts, including my original account - all are able to install software, stop and start services; all the usual admin-only stuff. Also, under compmgmt.msc: all such users are in the Admin group. "net user" also indicates that all accounts in question, are admins. I have booted into Safe Mode with the original admin account, but have the same issue under Safe Mode. I wonder if a local policy could be causing this (though I've not changed anything there). You might ask what I'm complaining about, since it doesn't seem to be affecting installing software or certain admin tasks. But simple changes such as the ability to uncheck "Lock Taskbar", revert back when changing. Many other profile settings "don't stick". Also, since it takes several days to re-install software, tweak profiles to my tastes, and patch everything - well, I don't want to run into problems down the road with this "Standard User" stuff which didn't exist on my previous build on this system. Thanks for any insight.