administrator password can be changed from command prompt:
type: net user administrator * then it asks for the new password,
a confirmation of the new password
it should say command completed successfully.
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User names are not case-sensitive for Windows logins, therefore you may type both Administrator and administrator. You can even type AdmINisTRatOR if you wish. In passwords, however, case does matter.
The built-in administrator has more privileges than the automatic administrator, regardless of UAC. In fact, it has a dangerous amount of privileges, and you should not use it–especially on a new OS with all-new security concerns–unless you know exactly why you need it.
if you ask about the “guest” account, The guest account is disabled by default, and the (disabled) administrator is not available for the password to be set. Further, to acquire pseudo-administrative privileges sufficient to enable the built-in administrator, you’d have to be know a pseudo-administrator’s password. Therefore, unless one gives the guest account administrator privileges, assuming the security policies hold appropriately, this is not an issue.
UAC is indeed accessed through Control Panel. Start | Control Panel | User Accounts | User Accounts (yes, again) | Turn User Account Control on or off. You may, however, want to wait for the official release of SP1 in a few weeks; they’ve apparently addressed nuisance factors in UAC.
People who don’t set logon passwords find that they cannot, for example, create schedule tasks, use file sharing appropriately, and/or access their computer from a network. These aren’t necessarily bad things, but it’s a little non-intuitive if you don’t realize what’s happening.
For the person who wants to login to the hidden administrator…was the article unclear? Follow the instructions carefully and you should be fine. If you are trying to “break in” to the built-in administrator from an account that does not have administrative privileges…why don’t you have access to an appropriate account?
For those of you receiving “access denied” errors, you may not be starting the command prompt properly. Many times these problems can be resolved by taking a closer look at the instructions and trying again.
On previous versions of Windows, starting in Safe Mode was one of the easiest ways to reveal the built-in administrator, but on Vista, if the account is disabled you cannot use it to access safe mode. While this may lead some of you to conclude that “if my account ever gets corrupted I’d like that administrator around,” a better solution would be to create a second administrator and only login to it once (to setup the profile), then have the discipline to use it only when something bad happens to your main account. You can then enable the built-in if you absolutely need it, but you’ll probably get all the privileges you need from your backup account.
I believe the comment about setting the password at the prompt is accurate.
Change Admin Password