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How to enable the hidden Administrator account in Windows 7 and Vista

By | March 4, 2011, 6:58am PST

Bill Detwiler shows you how unlock the hidden Administrator account on Windows 7 and Vista with the Computer Management console and Net User command. Once you’ve watched this TR Dojo video, you can find a link to the original TechRepublic article and print the tip from our TR Dojo Blog.

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Topics

Microsoft Windows Vista, Admin Account, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

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Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

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RE: How to enable the hidden Administrator account in Windows 7 and Vista
surfasb 4th Mar 2011
Why is this tip still around? It's disabled for security reasons and exists only for legacy reasons. Any other created Admin account has the same rights.

Ugh. Why do I even bother with this blog......
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RE: How to enable the hidden Administrator account in Windows 7 and Vista
HalfAKilo 4th Mar 2011
The Administrator account is disabled by default for security, since its name is well-known, and malicious software can attempt to run itself using Administrator account credentials. If you enable this account, make sure you set it up with a STRONG password.
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RE: How to enable the hidden Administrator account in Windows 7 and Vista
NetAdmin1178 4th Mar 2011
@HalfAKilo
A strong password is good, but we go one step further. As you said, the Administrator account is well-known; so at my company, we rename the administrator account to an obscure name that only has meaning to us - just an extra bit of security you can put in place against those brute force attacks.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: How to enable the hidden Administrator account in Windows 7 and Vista
surfasb 4th Mar 2011
Why is this tip still around? It's disabled for security reasons and exists only for legacy reasons. Any other created Admin account has the same rights.

Ugh. Why do I even bother with this blog......

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