XP Pro - Administrator account invisible

[Muse]

I cannot find my Administrator account, but I know it exists. It's completely absent when I go into User Accounts, but XP doesn't allow me to create it because it "already exists."

I'm installing a new mobo, so I figure I might have to wipe at least one of my OS partitions and do a fresh install of XP. I've been told I can try to repair it. Anyway, in order to make setup easier and so I don't lose useful/important data I want to back up my Documents and Settings in my current OS partition (and my other one). This is not easy because Windows doesn't want to copy the data. It balks when it finds that one of the files is "in use" and refuses to go any further. This happens even for the OS partition that I'm not currently using, go figure. 😕

Anyway, I figure that a way around this problem (because I'm in particular having this issue in my own account, i.e. D:\Documents and Settings\<my name> ) is to log off and log on as Administrator.

That might work except that when I log off, Administrator is not available in the Welcome Screen. Only my own user account (which has Administrator status) is available. When I go to Control Panel/User Accounts, I don't see Administrator either! I don't know how I can add Administrator to my Welcome Screen (which I used to have before I did a second install of XP, due to my having to swap mobos). If I go to add the Administrator account (it's inexplicably invisible in User Accounts), I'm told that the account already exists! WTF?

What's wrong here and what can I do to allow me to log on as Administrator. Or do I have to add my dog as Administrator and use his account? :disgust:

 

[RebateMonger]

If it's XP Home, you need to go into Safe Mode to see the Administrator account.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
If it's XP Home, you need to go into Safe Mode to see the Administrator account.

Umm, it's XP Pro. 😕

 

[Nothinman]

There's a registry key that tells the welcome screen which accounts to hide, I don't know if there's something in the GUI to change it though. I think if you hit Ctrl+Alt+Del twice at the welcome screen it'll give you a normal GINA login where you can type in whatever username you want.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
There's a registry key that tells the welcome screen which accounts to hide, I don't know if there's something in the GUI to change it though. I think if you hit Ctrl+Alt+Del twice at the welcome screen it'll give you a normal GINA login where you can type in whatever username you want.

Ah, I knew there was something. I tried double clicking. right clicking, saw nothing. I certainly didn't think to C-A-D twice.

I've since gotten myself into all kinds of trouble. Well, probably nothing significant. I downloaded and installed TweakUI for XP. That allowed me to set myself as the automatically logged on user, something I require because I have the PC set up to start daily and run certain tasks automatically. However, now I can't switch to a different user without typing in that user's name, because the Welcome Screen is no longer an option. I can't figure out how to change that because after the TweakUI install, the Users item is missing from Control Panel for some reason.

Woah, looking now I see that User Accounts is again there in Control Panel. I guess it came back after a reboot. 😕

 

[Muse]

I got my Welcome Screen working again, but Administrator isn't one of the users displayed on the screen. If I press Control+Alt+Delete twice I get a logon dialog and I can type in "Administrator." I suppose it's a registry setting, but I'd think there'd be a place I can access the behavior in the UI. There's only myself, 2nd Administrator and 3rd Administrator, new Administrator level users I added this morning. I added the 3rd when I couldn't access the 2nd! 😕 This stuff is pretty nutty.

 

[Canterwood]

You can enable the Administrator account to show on the welcome screen through TweakUI

Go to the 'Logon' section and tick the 'Show Administrator on wecome screen' box.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Canterwood
You can enable the Administrator account to show on the welcome screen through TweakUI

Go to the 'Logon' section and tick the 'Show Administrator on wecome screen' box.

Thanks, I hadn't seen that.