How can I make myself an administrator, Windows 7?

[MontyVeda]

Just install windows 10, it’s miles better. Especially when it’s on an SSD & boots up within a few seconds.

I hated Win10 and reverted back to 7. Anything boots up in seconds on an SSD

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Probably an assumption by the developers that it if you play with netplwiz that you know what you're doing.

This

 

[swee'pea99]

This

A rash assumption, clearly. These developers have heard of the internet, right? Where people who just want to use computers and don't know a netplwiz from a bite on the bum go for advice, and end up doing things that aren't perhaps best advised, because we can't all be experts?

"What dumb things are users likely to do, in their ignorance? How can we make allowances for that, and ensure that they don't end up in blind alleys?"

Ho ho, right? It's the dumbies that are to blame, for doing things wrong. Not the programmers, for failing to take into account the likelihood of that happening, and building in preventative measures that take it on board.

Glad we sorted that one out.

 

[Kempstonian]

Just install windows 10, it’s miles better. Especially when it’s on an SSD & boots up within a few seconds.

I run Win7 on the machine I'm on now and on my laptop but I had no choice but to have Win10 on my new(ish) games machine. Apparently it won't run with Win7.

For me there's not a lot of difference between the two systems. With Win10 I had to disable a lot of stuff that lets Microsoft spy on you... and I have to check every time there's an 'update' (which never seems to make any difference) that they haven't sneaked some of those things back again. There are several Youtube videos, made by actual Microsoft-trained engineers, that explain the spyware and show how to remove it, should anybody want to check them out.

 

[Profpointy]

Why you even need to have an administrator on a personal computer beats me. Its not like all our homes are offices with multiple machines that need someone to supervise them all and authorise the use of software. Microsoft annoy me with stuff like this.

There is a genuinely good reason to seperate out even your own user account from the admin account. Basically you do your normal stuff as yourself but it is then harder to accidentally delete something important or be succered into installing something dodgy off the internet without realising. As administrator you can mistakenly delete everything on the hard disc or reformat it entirely. However you can still log on as admin if you really do want to do any of these things, in which case you'll be suitably carefull hopefully

 

[Mr Celine]

Just install windows 10, it’s miles better. Especially when it’s on an SSD & boots up within a few seconds.

I've just built a new PC and installed windows 10 on a SSD. It boots in seconds and looks fantastic, but doesn't sound of anything. There follows five minutes faffing around reinstalling the sound drivers. Every time windows does an update, which you can't stop, it 'upgrades' the sound driver to one that doesn't work.
Meanwhile the old PC is dual booting win 7 and linux mint, the latter being very quick.

 

[Kempstonian]

There is a genuinely good reason to seperate out even your own user account from the admin account. Basically you do your normal stuff as yourself but it is then harder to accidentally delete something important or be succered into installing something dodgy off the internet without realising. As administrator you can mistakenly delete everything on the hard disc or reformat it entirely. However you can still log on as admin if you really do want to do any of these things, in which case you'll be suitably carefull hopefully

Thanks Prof but I managed for over 25 years NOT to do any of that on my Apple Macintosh... and I don't know of anybody else who did it either. I used Apple Mac for work and a Windows machine for playing games and doing family history. I know which one I prefer.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A rash assumption, clearly. These developers have heard of the internet, right? Where people who just want to use computers and don't know a netplwiz from a bite on the bum go for advice, and end up doing things that aren't perhaps best advised, because we can't all be experts?

"What dumb things are users likely to do, in their ignorance? How can we make allowances for that, and ensure that they don't end up in blind alleys?"

Ho ho, right? It's the dumbies that are to blame, for doing things wrong. Not the programmers, for failing to take into account the likelihood of that happening, and building in preventative measures that take it on board.

Glad we sorted that one out.

By your own admission you farked up your only admin account because of something you found on the Internet. If you don't understand the implications of stuff you find best leave it alone.

 

[fossyant]

Never mind hey, you've learnt to only mess with passwords via Windows.

 

[Profpointy]

Thanks Prof but I managed for over 25 years NOT to do any of that on my Apple Macintosh... and I don't know of anybody else who did it either. I used Apple Mac for work and a Windows machine for playing games and doing family history. I know which one I prefer.

Yebbut, if you're sensible, you'd split the accounts on your Mac too - just like I have, as indeed mandated by my employer, and to comply with any reasonable security standarss