How To Enable The Hidden Administrator Account

Whether you perform a clean Installation of Windows, or purchase a brand new computer and booting It up for the very first time, you need to create a (Administrator) user account prior to accessing the Windows environment. Did you know, that Windows also has a hidden Administrator account, that allows you to run tools and programs with the highest privileges? Well, In this tutorial, I will show you how to enable It with Incredible ease.


So why Is the built-In Administrator account hidden to begin with? I'm glad you've asked! It actually has more privileges than the normal Admin account that you'd usually create via Control Panel. As such, malicious tools can execute without restrictions, and users can do the very same when performing certain tasks on the PC, thus for security reasons, It's disabled by default.

I will demonstrate how to enable It, by using the Local Security Policy Editor, that's only available In Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise and Education editions. If you're running either of these, then this tutorial Is for you. So without further delay, let's get this started.

Step One:

To access the Local Security Policy Editor, open the Run menu, enter secpol.msc and hit OK as shown below.

Step Two:

The Local Security Policy will now open, so navigate to the following directory.

 Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options

Make sure Security Options Is selected and on the right pane, double-click Accounts: administrator account status.

Step Three:

Now select the Enabled radio button, and then click OK to finalize the process.

Step Four:

This Is my account status prior to applying the above. Only my normal Administrator account and Standard user account, are In effect.

Last Step:

And here's the result after applying the setting via the Local Security Policy Editor. As you can see, the default Administrator account Is now up and running. I can perform tasks with the highest privileges- completely bypassing the UAC (User Account Control).

Final Thoughts:

When enabled, the default Administrator account basically provides you with full access to perform tasks with the highest of privileges. This also means that other users (with malicious Intent), or malware that's Infected your computer, can do the very same and cause significant and perhaps Irreversible damage. As such, I strongly suggest to enable It only as needed, and Immediately disable It when finished.

To do the latter, refer to Step Three above, select the Disabled radio button and simply click OK thereafter.