Online IT Pro professional help without the professional price.
  • About
  • Contact
  • RSS Feed

Make your account an Administrator in Windows XP

By
The Pro
– March 13, 2008Posted in: Windows XP

In order to perform some tasks on your computer, your computer account must be an Administrator account so you have permission to make the those changes.  You can easily give yourself administrator rights on your computer.  To do this, you will need to know your exact login name.  Your login name is the name that you use to log into Windows.

Right click on your My Computer icon (if it’s not on your desktop, it will be in your Start Menu).  Click the “manage” option.

Right Click My Computer

The Computer Management window will open.  In the left hand navigation pane expand Local Users and Groups, click on “Groups” and double click “Administrators” in the right hand pane.

Manage My Computer

The Admin properties will now open so click the “Add” button.

Admin Properties

In the text bottom enter login name and click the “OK” button.

Add User

Your name should now be added to the Members area of the Admin Properties window. Click the “OK” button, close the Windows Management window and you are now a member of the administrators group in Windows XP.

For this to take affect, you must log off and log back onto your computer (or you can just restart your computer, it’s up to you).

Tags: admin account, administrator account, become admin, become administrator, computer admin, computer administrator

About the Author

19 Comments

  1. BobbyD
    Posted June 19, 2008 at 1:04 AM

    it dosent work for me i just get a “acess denied” message when i try and press ADD or OK so help would be very very nice

  2. The Pro
    Posted August 4, 2008 at 1:54 PM

    @BobbyD – It sounds like your account doesn’t have permissions to make that Administrative change.

    You will have to log in as a local administrator on your computer and then adjust your account under the administrator’s profile.

  3. DonnaP
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 7:42 AM

    My computer (It is an XP.) doesn’t have a “Local Users and Groups” under Computer Management. Now what?

  4. The Pro
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 1:35 PM

    @DonnaP – That’s okay that it doesn’t display. There is another way to get to it.

    - Click on Start
    - Click Run
    - type “lusrmgr.msc” (without the quotes) and click the OK button

    This will open the Local Users and Group window for you and you will then be able to make your account changes.

    FYI – If you have Windows XP Home version, that is probably why you don’t see the local users and groups. It is only displayed in XP Pro.

  5. DonnaP
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 7:33 PM

    THANK YOU !!!

  6. DonnaP
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 7:47 PM

    BTW – I followed your instructions and learned that with XP Home Version, I’m not allowed to access Local Users and Groups. But that window sent me to User Accounts in the Control Panel. There I made myself the administrator so that now I can make changes in msconfig and copy files to my new flash drive. Phew. Thanks again.

  7. silencer
    Posted March 14, 2009 at 11:54 AM

    i just got access denied what to do now

  8. The Pro
    Posted March 23, 2009 at 12:39 PM

    @silencer – You will need to make changes to your account with an account on your computer that already is administrator (probably the ‘administrator’ account)

  9. ananimus
    Posted March 29, 2009 at 7:44 PM

    but if you dont have access to an admin it is impossible correct?

  10. freak
    Posted September 15, 2009 at 7:12 AM

    i have a windows vista. My computer account is not an administrator account nor is there any administrator accounts. but when i click manage under my computer, it requires the administrator password. of which i have no idea how to access.

  11. JOhn
    Posted December 12, 2009 at 10:58 AM

    I just get access denied. Is there another way if you dont have access to the admin account?

  12. teddy
    Posted February 12, 2010 at 6:24 PM

    hey man… this laptop is weird because it doesnt have an admistrator set up but i cant make my account the admin… wat do i do?

  13. MW2!!
    Posted April 9, 2010 at 6:48 PM

    i have no adminsitrator accounts on my computer…how can i make a administrator account with a regular account?

  14. Albert Gonzales
    Posted April 11, 2010 at 8:45 PM

    Excellent article, I’m an avid reader of your website, keep on writing these great posts, and I will be a regular visitor for a long time.

  15. :)
    Posted April 19, 2010 at 2:08 PM

    my computer doesnt have an administrator and when i go on my account it says limited? i have no clue whats going on

  16. PAtrick
    Posted June 21, 2010 at 2:47 AM

    its saids The following error occurred while attempting to save properties For Group Administrators Computer PERSONAL-5E983A

    ACCESS DENIED

  17. Jessica
    Posted June 28, 2010 at 8:49 AM

    It says my account IS the computer administrator, but it still won’t give me access to anything. What do I do?

  18. whahahaha
    Posted July 12, 2010 at 11:40 PM

    Mine says that the name cannot be found. ‘An object named (blank) cannot be found. Check the selected object typesa and location for accuracy and ensure that you typed the object name correctly (which I did), or remove this object from the selection’.

  19. luke manning
    Posted July 20, 2010 at 10:02 PM

    Gotta love the internet, I’m still learning the ropes myself.

Leave a Reply




XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Cancel Reply

  • Ads by Google
  • Categories

    Windows XP                     Windows Vista

    Microsoft Office                 OpenOffice

    Ubuntu                               Mozilla Firefox

    PC Maintenance               Cool Software

  • Online IT Pro Stats
    • Pages displayed : 386833
    • Unique visitors : 242908
    • Pages displayed in last 24 hours : 805
    • Unique visitors in last 24 hours : 491
  • Popular posts
    • Show From field in an email in Outlook 2007
    • Repair Outlook 2007 PST with ScanPST
    • Recover deleted emails in Outlook 2007
    • Make your account an Administrator in Windows XP
    • Freeze the top row in Microsoft Excel 2007
    • Show Bcc field in Outlook 2007
    • Change themes in Office 2007
    • Change Microsoft Word 2007 Background
    • How to fix print spooler errors
    • Cleanup your PC easily (part 1)
  • Support Online IT Pro [via PayPal]

About Arras Theme

Copyright Online IT Pro. All Rights Reserved.