Deleting another administrator account in WinXP

[hk10Mbps]

You must create at least one account when you setup WinXP , I create an account called Tony. But I don't want to use it since I can use the account called "administrator". But now I can't delete the Tony account I created during setup even when I log in as "administrator". Please help.

 

[prosaic]

Well, since you don't say just what you did to try to get rid of the "Tony" account, nor what happened when you tried (error messages, system behavior, etc.), I'll just take a guess. If you told the system to set up the account as "Private" then access to the directory structures under the account would be limited to the "Tony" account only (assuming this is an NTFS installation). You can fix that by taking ownership of the structures. How you do that would depend upon which Windows XP (Home Edition or Pro) you are running. But booting into Safe Mode and logging in as the administrator then navigating to the account location in Windows Explorer and using the sharing and security dialogs would work for either version of the OS.

BTW, I think it makes sense to keep two admin level accounts on a machine, even if you only use one of them. If I were going to constantly use an admin account, I'd make it the one I created during setup, reserving the built-in admin account for emergencies and certain types of maintenance. If you only have the one admin account and something happens to bork it (like a software or driver installation gone berserk), it's reinstallation time for the whole system.

- prosaic

 

[hk10Mbps]

I know that in order to delete the "Tony" admin account I created at setup, I would have to login as "administrator" to delete it. After login as "administrator", I went to User Profiles in System Properties to delete Tony and it is gone. But the problem is that I go to User Accounts in Control Pannel, it still showing the Tony account! Help!

 

[prosaic]

No biggie. I understand now. Normally when you wish to remove an account you should go into User Accounts, click on the Change an Account selection, select the account you wish to remove, then select Delete Account. At that point you are asked if you wish to delete the files for the account. If you select yes then the profile (the directory structures under Documents and Settings) gets deleted.

The way you did this was to delete the profile first. (Deleting the profile under System Properties is the same as navigating to the profile under Windows Explorer and deleting it.) But this leaves the central registration of the account intact. You can remove it just the way I outlined in the first paragraph. Go into User Accounts in Control Panel, choose Change an Account, select the account, click on the Delete Account choice.

- prosaic

 

[hk10Mbps]

There is just no delete option in there.

 

[prosaic]

If not, then I suspect that something is screwed up in that installation of the OS. Or a policy / registry edit has been applied to keep the option from showing. This system hasn't ever been joined to a domain, has it?

- prosaic

 

[LittleAl]

I use "Computer Management" in "Administrator Tools" to create or delete accounts. You can find "Administrator Tools" in Control Panel. In the Computer Management window navigate to Local Users and Groups / Users, alternate click on the account you want to delete and delete it.

 

[brandonm]

Try this if you haven't...

Right-click My Computer and select Manage. Open up the Local Users and Groups snap-in. Try to delete the account within there by right-clicking the account and selecting delete.

 

[hk10Mbps]

Someone in another post told me to type "control userpasswords2" in the Run dialog box and I have deleted the Tony account! It also lets you bypass login at startup. Thanks all you guys!