Windows 8: Enable the hidden Administrator Account

Windows 8 just like its predecessor Windows 7 ships with an administrator account that is disabled by default. While it is not suggested to enable and use the administrators on a day to day basis, it can be used for a variety of purposes. One of the reasons is to use it as a fallback account in case you can’t log in to a regular user account, or for tasks that require administrative privileges.

When you list the accounts in the user accounts control panel applet, you will notice that the hidden administrator account is not listed there while the guest account that is also disabled is. It is easier to enable the administrator account if you can still log in to Windows with another administrator account.

You need to run the command from an elevated command prompt. To do that you need to do the following:

Press the Windows key to get into the Metro interface if you are not already there.Enter cmd and right-click on the Command Prompt result that should appear.This opens a list of options at the bottom. Select Run as administrator there.Accept the UAC prompt

Enter the following command to enable the hidden administrator account: net user administrator /active:yes

If you ever want to disable the account follow the same instructions, but run the following command instead: net user administrator /active:no

Once you have enabled the account, you will see it listed in the user accounts control panel applet. Note that the account has not assigned a password to it, and that you should consider setting one to improve account security.

If you have forgotten your account password and can’t log in to the system anymore, you may use the administrator account to get back into the system. Please note that it may be easier to request the password to be reset if you are using a Microsoft Account password to log in. You can for instance request that from a different system or your smartphone.

If you can’t sign in anymore you can still recover the system from that by enabling the hidden administrator account. The process itself requires you to download the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor which is available as an ISO image that you can burn to CD or DVD, and a file that you can install on an USB Flash Drive. You then need to boot from the selected device to see a DOS-like interface where you need to run a series of command in to restore the user account. Here are the steps that you need to complete:

First screen, press enter to continueSelect the hard drive that your Windows installation is installed on. This may take some time to get right depending on the number of partitions on the PC as it is using the “Linux-way” of listing the hard drives.You then need to enter the path to the Registry. I’d recommend to tap on enter to try the default path first which usually is detected correctly by the program.Press qSelect the Password Reset option (1)Enter Administrator as the user account that you want to modify.Select the unlock and enable user account option (4)Use ! and q to end the editing and save the values

Restart the PC and make sure you are booting from the operating system’s drive again. You should now see the administrator account listed on the sign in page. Select it to regain access to the system. From there, you can change other account passwords or run administrative tasks to restore access to the PC. (thanks Caschy)

Instead of enabling the hidden administrator account, you could as easily create a new user account with administrative privileges on the system. You could then use that account to log in if there is an emergency and you can’t sign in with your regular account anymore.

You also need to know that changing the password of a user account may have an impact on the files accessible to that account. This is especially true if encryption was used. If that is the case, the files may not be accessible anymore after the account password has been changed.

I’d generally recommend to create a second “regular” administrator account for the purpose of recovery than enabling the hidden administrator account. The core reason for this is that the hidden account has additional privileges that other administrator accounts do not have.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday June 11, 2012 -
Tags:administrator, windows tips

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Quickly Enable or Disable HTML Messages In Thunderbird

One of my security and privacy recommendations for desktop email users is to disable HTML emails. This basically turns every email that you receive into a plain text email that does not load anything from third party servers. Once in a while though you may stumble upon an email that you need or want to view in HTML. If you have disabled HTML you’d have to enable it again by going to View > Message Body As > Original HTML or Simple HTML to do that. And once you have finished reading the message, you need to perform the very same steps to disable HTML for all emails again.

Sebastian recommended the HTML Temp add-on for the Thunderbird email client to switch HTML messages in Thunderbird on or off more effortlessly.

Download HTML Temp from the official Thunderbird add-ons repository. Once it has been downloaded open up the email client and click on Tools > Add-ons to open the add-ons manager. Click on the options icon on the left of the search all add-ons form there and select Install Add-on from file from the context menu.

Select the downloaded add-on on your local computer and install it in the email program. You need to restart Thunderbird before it becomes available.

The add-on adds the current message display preference in the lower right corner of the status bar. You can now right-click on it to switch to Simple HTML or Original HTML whenever you need to view a message in HTML. Once you are done you use the same method to switch back to plain text messages.

The add-on allows you to move a button with the same functionality to one of the toolbars. This can be helpful if you have disabled the status bar in the program or prefer to click on the button in the header area of the email client.

Update: Sebastian mentioned that the toolbar button behaves different from the status bar button. When you click the toolbar button HTML will be enabled only for the active email and no other. This means that you do not have to click again to restore the plain text message view.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Print Covers using Undercover XP
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Improve Firefox Private Browsing With Private Browsing Window Add-on About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Sunday January 22, 2012 -
Tags:html emails, thunderbird extensions

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How To Enable Phone Notifications In Google Calendar

If you are using Google Calendar to keep track of things, you’d probably notice that you only get notifications on your desktop computer if you are on that computer and have the Google Calendar page open. That’s fine if you are working on your desktop most of the time, but won’t do you any good if you are not near the desktop. A laptop or smartphone could help you out here, as data can be synced across devices relatively effortlessly.

Some users on the other hand may not have an Android or iOS smartphone that they can sync their events with. Those users can however configure Google Calendar to send SMS notifications to their phone. This needs to be set up before the option becomes available.

Open the Google Calendar website and locate the options button in the upper right corner of the screen. Click on it and select settings from the context menu.

Switch to the Mobile Setup tab in the Calendar Settings menu. It should display the message that phone notifications are currently disabled for the computer. To enable them, you need to enter your mobile phone number and country into the form on the page. Once you have done that you click on send verification code to receive an SMS code that you need to enter on the same page to finish the setup.

It is not clear why Google is not using the existing mobile phone number, or even suggests to use it. Carrier costs may apply, and a link leads to the supported carriers.

Once done you are taken to notifications where you can configure SMS notifications for the following event types.

New Events: Receive a notification when someone sends you an invitation to an event.Changed events:Receive a notification when someone sends an update about a changed event.Canceled events:Receive a notification when someone sends an update about a cancelled event.Event responses:Receive a notification when guests respond to an event for which you can see the guest list.

It is not possible to configure SMS notifications for the Daily agenda though.

Each calendar has its own notification settings, and you may want to check the calendars listing to make sure they are all set up correctly.

Please note that this changes are valid for each calendar. Some users may want to configure SMS notifications only for specific events, and not all of their events in the Calendar. This is done by editing events directly. If the event exists, click on it and select edit event from the options.

Locate the reminders entry and switch from Pop-up to SMS there.

And that’s how you configure SMS notifications in Google Calendar. Have anything to share, success stories or stories where this did not work at all? Then post a comment below.

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Integrate Google Calendar Into Thunderbird About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday January 20, 2012 -
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