Since its inception, the Microsoft operating system offers the option of activating an Administrator account . This account allows us to perform different actions on our computer with the maximum privileges. In previous versions of Windows this account could be activated from the Control Panel very easily, but in Windows 10 this account is hidden. If you want to know how you can activate the hidden Administrator account on your computer, we recommend that you continue reading.
Differences between a standard account and an Administrator account
Before seeing the steps you must follow to carry out an action, we are going to see the main differences between the two types of account. An account with standard permissions is basically a limited account that can only make changes to its own account and not to the entire system. We refer to actions such as changing icons, background, but not to changes that affect the system in general, such as installing or uninstalling programs.
For their part , administrator accounts can make all kinds of changes to the system, from the configuration to the registry, including installing or uninstalling programs.
What user account should you use?
Assuming that an administrator account has access to all system resources, this also means that it is an open door to vulnerabilities. For example, in the event that some type of malware reaches our computer from that account, it will have administrator permissions, so it could damage to a much greater extent than if it accessed from a user account. Another implicit risk is that if the administrator account falls into the hands of someone with limited knowledge, it could irreversible changes in the system.
That said, Microsoft itself recommends limiting the number of users who have access to the administrator account and preventing this account from having access to the Internet to avoid exposure to any type of virus or attack. Remember that if you do not have very advanced computer knowledge it is better that you create a user account with standard permissions and that you limit the use of administrator only for when it is strictly necessary to make changes such as installing or uninstalling programs
How to activate the hidden Administrator account
Now that you know the differences between the two types of account and the risks to which you expose yourself using the administrator account, let’s see how you can activate the hidden administrator account in Windows 10 very quickly and easily.
The first thing you have to do is open a command prompt window with administrator permissions.
- Type “cmd” in the Windows search box or right-click on the Windows icon in the start menu to bring up a menu with the Command Prompt option.
- When you have the command prompt window open, type the command net user administrator / active: yes and press Enter to enable the administrator account.
From this moment the administrator account is activated. Given the risks involved in using it, we recommend that you add a password from the command prompt window itself. This password will be required every time you have to make a change in the system.
- To add it, open the command prompt window again as we have seen a few lines above and type the command net user administrator * .
- Enter the password you want and hit enter.
- This step can also be done from the account management in the Windows control panel.
Check if the account has been activated
To check that you have activated the administrator account correctly, you must access control panel> user accounts> manage another account . Here now you should see the administrator user account. From here you can also add a password as we said before.
Remember that the ideal is that you use the standard account in your day-to-day life and if at any time you want to make changes to the system or install programs that require these privileges, you just have to switch to the account that you just activated and manage it from it.
How to hide the Administrator account in Windows 10 again
If at any time you want to deactivate the account that you just created, the steps are almost the same as you have followed to activate it.
- Open the command prompt again by typing “cmd” without the quotation marks in the Windows search box or by right-clicking on the Windows icon.
- Now run the command net user administrator / active: no in the command prompt window.
- When the command has been run close the Command Prompt.
- Now the user account will be disabled and no longer appear on the i nitiate session nor in Control Panel.
Prevent changes from being made by activating the UAC
The Windows UAC (User Account Control) is an extra security control that allows you to be aware at all times of the changes that are made to your computer and even prevent them from being made if they are not authorized.
To configure the UAC, open the Windows search box and type ” uac . ” Click on the option Change User Account Control settings. You will now see that on the left you have a bar with which you can configure the level of protection. You have four options available:
- Always notify me : if you activate this option, the system will notify you when the programs you have installed try to make changes to the computer.
- Notify me only when an application tries to make changes to the computer : this option will only notify you when the programs you have installed try to install other applications or make changes to your computer.
- Notify me only when an application tries to make changes to the computer (do not dim the desktop) : this option will notify you when the programs you have in Windows try to install other applications or make changes to the computer, but will not notify you when you are the one who makes the changes changes.
- Never notify me : the system will not notify you when programs try to install something or make changes to the computer. Nor when you are the one who makes the changes. We do not recommend using this level of settings, as you can ignore changes that are made by mistake.
