Have you lost your administrative rights in your Windows 10 computer? If you have indeed lost it, you neither be able to run any program as an administrator on your computer nor will be able to make any administrative level changes on your computer. Simply follow these easy fixes and the problem will be solved in no time at all.
Fix-1 Run a command in safe mode
For this we have to enter into safe mode via Recovery environment. Lets see how to do that.
1. Make sure your computer is fully shutdown.
2. Now, press the power button to start the Computer. As soon as something appears on screen (Usually Logo), press the power button and keep it pressed for 5 seconds continuously, so that it gets shut down forcefully.
3. Now, repeat this process, 2 to 3 times until you reach a Automatic repair screen.
4. Now, a message will appear which says diagnosing your PC.
Now, In next screen click on Advanced options.
5. Now, click on troubleshoot.
6. Now, click on advanced options.
7. Now, click on startup settings.
8. Click on Restart.
9. Press 4 from the keyboard to select safe mode.
10. Once you log into system in safe mode, open command prompt. Just search cmd in windows 10 search box and click on cmd icon.
11. Now, run the command given below in command prompt.
net user administrator /active:yes
12. Now, run the command given below.
net localgroup Administrators type_in_your_username_here /add
13. Close the cmd window and start pc in normal mode and check again.
Fix-2 Modify Account settings from Registry Editor-
1. At first, you need to open the Settings.
2. Then access the “Update and Security” settings.
3. After that, click on the “Recovery“.
4. Then, under “Advanced Startup” section, click on “Restart Now“.
5. Next, step is to click on the “Troubleshoot“.
6. To see more available options you have to click on the “Advanced options“.
7. You need to access the “Command Prompt“. So, click on it.
8. Put your account password to get through to the CMD terminal. Click on “Continue“.
9. In Command Prompt window, type or copy-paste “regedit” and hit Enter to open Registry Editor on your computer.
NOTE–
You should need to create a backup of your registry. Once you have opened the Registry Editor, you need to click on the “File” and then on the “Export” from the menu bar.
10. In the Registry Editor window, select the ” HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” branch to highlight it.
11. Now, click on “File” from the menu bar and then click on “Load Hive“.
12. In Load Hive window, navigate to this location-
system root drive > Windows > System32
13. In the System32 folder, double click on the “config” folder.
13. In the Config folder, scroll down to find and select the “SAM” file.
14. Now, click on “Open” to load the hive under the registry branch*.
15. You need to provide a name to the hive.
16. Name the key “REM_SAM“. Click on “OK“.
17. In Registry Editor window, on the left-hand side, navigate to this location-
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REM_SAM\SAM\Domains\Accounts\UsersHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REM_SAM\SAM\Domains\Accounts\Users\000001F40001F4
18. Now, in the same window, on the right-hand side, double click on “F” binary value to modify it.
19. In Edit Binary Value window, go to the line “00000038“.
20. Place your cursor on just the right side of “11” and press “Delete” from your keyboard.
21. Now, type “10” to change the value.
22. Finally, click on “OK” to save the changes on your computer.
Close Registry Editor window.
Close Command Prompt window.
23. Coming back to the Choose an Option window, click on “Turn off your PC” to turn it off.
Start your computer again.
After rebooting your pc, you will have the administrative rights back for your account.
Your problem will be solved.
*NOTE–
Trying to open the “SAM” file you may see this error message “The process cannot access the file it is being used by another process” or this one “File is in use“.
To solve the issue follow these steps-
1. In the Registry Editor window, select the ” HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” branch to highlight it.
2. Now, click on “File” from the menu bar and then click on “Load Hive“.
3. Now, click on the “Look in:” section to open the drop-down.
You were facing the trouble because you were selecting the “BOOT(X:)” drive on which the CMD is itself is running.
4. Select the system root drive on your computer.(For this computer it is “Local Disk (D:)” drive, Normally its Local Disk (C:) ) And then click on “Open“.
5. Now, scroll down and double click on the “Windows” folder.
6. Same way, scroll down and find the “System32” folder to access it.
7. Now, double click on the “Config” folder to access it.
Then follow the rest of instructions (from step-13) to modify the binary value and solve the issue.
Sambit is a Mechanical Engineer By qualification who loves to write about Windows 10 and solutions to weirdest possible problems.
Richard mw says
Super it’s working fine