An administrator can install all software and run all programs on operating systems from Microsoft, like Windows 10. This is particularly useful when troubleshooting problems because some applications, including Windows’ own, can only be run with administrator rights.
Although any user of a Windows 10 computer can run programs with administrator rights and make changes to the system as long as they have the administrator password, depending on the program, Windows may prompt for this password in a pop-up window. If this pop-up window bothers you, here’s how to enable an administrator account in Windows 10 so that the operating system no longer asks you for the administrator password.
There are two ways you can enable the admin account: either using the cmd.exe command prompt or using the Windows 10 Local Users and Groups feature. Of course, both methods only work if you also know the administrator password!
Here’s how to enable the admin account from the command prompt
With the key combination WINDOWS+X, you open the Windows context menu, where you select the menu item “Windows PowerShell (Administrator)”. Next, Windows will ask for the administrator password.
After you have entered the password, enter the command “net user administrator /active:yes” in the CLI input window. You will then receive the message: “The command was successfully executed”.
To undo the command, you can enter the command “net user administrator /active:no” in the same window.
Alternatively, you can also enter the administrator account through the command prompt cmd.exe. To do this, open the “Run” menu with the key combination WINDOWS+R and type in the command cmd.exe. In this input window, enter the command net user administrator /active:yes as above to activate the administrator account.
How to enable admin account via Local Users and Groups
The other way to activate the administrator account is via the “Run” window, which you open with the key combination WINDOWS+R. Here you enter the command “lusrmgr.msc” which opens the “Local Users and Groups” window.
In this window, go to the “Users” folder under “Local Users and Groups” in the menu bar on the left. Here you double-click on “Administrator”. With this you open a new window “Administrator properties”, under the “General” tab you will find the marked box in the middle with the label “Account is disabled”. If you remove the tick, the administrator account is activated as soon as you confirm the selection below with either “Ok” or “Apply”.
Quick Guide: Enable Administrator Account Using Command Prompt
1. Open the Run window with WINDOWS+R and enter “cmd.exe”.
2. In the command prompt, enter the command “net user administrator /active:yes”. With “net user administrator /active:no” you deactivate the admin account again
Quick guide: Activate administrator account with “Local Users and Groups”.
1. Open the Run window with WINDOWS+R and type “lusrmgr.msc”.
2. In the “Local Users and Groups” window, select the “Users” folder and double-click on “Administrator”
3. Here you remove the tick for “Account is deactivated”. If you check the box again, the admin account is deactivated again.
