A friend received a laptop with xp pro installed. She has a guest
account with a known password. She does not know the admin account
name or password. Because she is not an admin, she is not able to do
much with it.

Is there a way to get her admin rights, without logging on as an
admin ? Or create a new account that has admin rights, without
logging on as an admin ? I don't want to have to reinstall xp for
her.

"Bill" <billnh2001nospam@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e04142f9-d23d-4060-b3d9-998b8ce1264e@m34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>A friend received a laptop with xp pro installed. She has a guest
> account with a known password. She does not know the admin account
> name or password. Because she is not an admin, she is not able to do
> much with it.
>
> Is there a way to get her admin rights, without logging on as an
> admin ? Or create a new account that has admin rights, without
> logging on as an admin ? I don't want to have to reinstall xp for
> her.
>

No - you MUST reset the password for the admin account:
Being able to create an admin without being an admin yourself
would totally defy the principle of admin accounts, wouldn't it?
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

Bill wrote:
> A friend received a laptop with xp pro installed.


"Received" how, precisely? As a gift? Purchased second-hand?


> She has a guest
> account with a known password. She does not know the admin account
> name or password. Because she is not an admin, she is not able to do
> much with it.
>


If the person from whom she "acquired" the computer cannot give her
the passwords, (and the installation CDs for the OS and any other
software installed), she'd be wise to immediately check with the
appropriate law enforcement agencies to ensure that she hasn't
inadvertently received stolen property.


> Is there a way to get her admin rights, without logging on as an
> admin ?


No.

> Or create a new account that has admin rights, without
> logging on as an admin ?


No.

> I don't want to have to reinstall xp for
> her.
>


Nevertheless, that's probably the best thing to do. With
second-hand computers, perhaps even if acquired from a family member or
friend, but especially if acquired from a stranger, the wisest course of
action would definitely be to format the hard drives and start fresh.
I'm sure she doesn't want to get in trouble because the original owner
may have filled the hard drive with kiddie porn, or have problems
because the original owner downloaded/installed viruses or other malware.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

A reinstall of XP takes a long time to be sure but is the wisest way to go.
By the way a "Guest account" has no way to assign a password so she must
have a Limited account. Has she tried logging onto the Administrator account
with a blank password? Or as Pegasus mentioned she can simply blank the
password with the hack program he sent a link to.

--

Xandros


"Bill" <billnh2001nospam@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e04142f9-d23d-4060-b3d9-998b8ce1264e@m34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>A friend received a laptop with xp pro installed. She has a guest
> account with a known password. She does not know the admin account
> name or password. Because she is not an admin, she is not able to do
> much with it.
>
> Is there a way to get her admin rights, without logging on as an
> admin ? Or create a new account that has admin rights, without
> logging on as an admin ? I don't want to have to reinstall xp for
> her.
>

Please forgive my intrusion, but how DOES one acquire adminsitrative rights?
I own my Dell computer but have no way of knowing whether I have these
rights, and if not, how to get them? Could someone let me know? Thanks so
much! Adela

Here's what I have:
(WinXP Home SP2; OE 6; IE 6; Dell Dimension XPS T450MHz Pentium III; Free
Version 7.5.503; spybot S&D; ad-aware; cable modem; WordPerfect8; Lexmark
Laser printer "Optra E310")


"Bill" <billnh2001nospam@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:e04142f9-d23d-4060-b3d9-998b8ce1264e@m34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>A friend received a laptop with xp pro installed. She has a guest
> account with a known password. She does not know the admin account
> name or password. Because she is not an admin, she is not able to do
> much with it.
>
> Is there a way to get her admin rights, without logging on as an
> admin ? Or create a new account that has admin rights, without
> logging on as an admin ? I don't want to have to reinstall xp for
> her.
>

You acquire administrative rights by logging on as "Administrator",
then elevating your normal logon account to "administrator"
status. This is not a recommended course of action: If your
everyday logon account has administrative privileges then you
make it easy for a virus to establish itself on your machine.
Much better to leave the account as it is and to log on as
Administrator only when you need to.


"Adela" <nuevadela2@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:%23evQ65kWIHA.5396@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Please forgive my intrusion, but how DOES one acquire adminsitrative
> rights? I own my Dell computer but have no way of knowing whether I have
> these rights, and if not, how to get them? Could someone let me know?
> Thanks so much! Adela
>
> Here's what I have:
> (WinXP Home SP2; OE 6; IE 6; Dell Dimension XPS T450MHz Pentium III; Free
> Version 7.5.503; spybot S&D; ad-aware; cable modem; WordPerfect8; Lexmark
> Laser printer "Optra E310")
>
>
> "Bill" <billnh2001nospam@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:e04142f9-d23d-4060-b3d9-998b8ce1264e@m34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>>A friend received a laptop with xp pro installed. She has a guest
>> account with a known password. She does not know the admin account
>> name or password. Because she is not an admin, she is not able to do
>> much with it.
>>
>> Is there a way to get her admin rights, without logging on as an
>> admin ? Or create a new account that has admin rights, without
>> logging on as an admin ? I don't want to have to reinstall xp for
>> her.
>>
>
>