My user account says "Administrator", but doesn't act like it

My user account shows my name and then says "Administrator". But when I run
some programs (like spybot), it says that I must be an administrator to
perform some of the tasks.

So when I go to Control Panel\User Accounts and try to change my account
type, it shows the radio button by "Standard user" checked. But when I click
on the "Administrator" radio button, the "Change account type" button grays
out and I can't click on it. How can I change my account so that I truly am
the Administrator?

Thanks,
Bruce

=?Utf-8?B?Qlc=?= wrote in
:

My user account shows my name and then says "Administrator". But
when I run some programs (like spybot), it says that I must be an
administrator to perform some of the tasks.

So when I go to Control Panel\User Accounts and try to change my
account type, it shows the radio button by "Standard user"
checked. But when I click on the "Administrator" radio button,
the "Change account type" button grays out and I can't click on
it. How can I change my account so that I truly am the
Administrator?

Thanks,
Bruce

A quick check to see if you are an administrator is to right-click on
"Start". If "Open All Users" is one of the options that pop up, then
you are an administrator.

Another way is to bring up a command prompt window
Start-Run-"cmd"
then enter the command:
net localgroup administrators
This will provide a list of users that are administrators. If your
login is not on this list, you can add it by using the command:
net localgroup administrators user /add
where user is replaced with the user name you are adding. You may
need to be an administrator to execute this command.

HTH,
John

BW wrote:
My user account shows my name and then says "Administrator". But
when I run some programs (like spybot), it says that I must be an
administrator to perform some of the tasks.

So when I go to Control Panel\User Accounts and try to change my
account type, it shows the radio button by "Standard user" checked.
But when I click on the "Administrator" radio button, the "Change
account type" button grays out and I can't click on it. How can I
change my account so that I truly am the Administrator?

Please provide Operating system (edition and service pack level,
the more detail, the better.):

Start button -- RUN
(no "RUN"? Press the "Windows Key" + R on your keyboard)
-- type in:
winver
-- Click OK.

The picture at the top of the window that opens will give you the general
(Operating System name) while the line starting with the word "version" will
give you the rest of the story. Post _both_ in response to this message
verbatim. ;-)


Accounts can be renamed - including the built-in 'administrator' account.
Your account may not actually be the built-in 'administrator' account.

Find out if your user is a member of the local "adminstrators" group...

Start button -- RUN
(no "RUN"? Press the "Windows Key" + R on your keyboard)
-- type in:
cmd /k net localgroup administrators
-- Click OK.

Are you (your user account - the one you are logged in with when you run the
command) in the list of "Members" there?

After verifying that, try a little cleanup.
(If you aren't in the 'administrators' group - this may not work...)

Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan (separately) with the
following two applications (freeware versions are the ones to use for this):

SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

MalwareBytes
http://www.malwarebytes.com/

After performing a full scan with one and then the other and removing
whatever they both find completely, you may uninstall these products,
if you wish.

Download and run the MSRT manually:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/ma...e/default.mspx

Reboot.

Come back and report what you find/what happens in as much detail as
possible. Whatever messages you see when trying commands - quote them
letter-for-letter.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html