Do you have both a User account and an Admin account?

Try3 · Dec 20, 2023

ShamrockRig said:
Ive had it off for years due to its pain in the ass asking me if i wanna, If i didn't wanna i wouldn't have told ya to!

I can go days without any Admin prompt appearing despite keeping my UAC at the highest level.
After completing installations, I'd be surprised if I need to grant Admin approval more than half a dozen times a week.

Denis

Try3 · Dec 20, 2023

I think it might also be worth reminding / informing people that UAC was not introduced by MS as a security measure.
It was intended to be a convenience.
- Without UAC, if an Admin process has to be run then the Standard user has to back up whatever work is in hand, get out of the way to allow the Admin user to sit down in front of the computer, log in to an Admin user account and do whatever is necessary before then logging out, getting out of the way & going back to an IT dungeon somewhere.
- With UAC, the Admin can just take over, enter a password then get lost.
MS were very clear about this in the Engineering Windows 7 series of articles issued in the run up to Windows 7 release in 2009.
- User Account Control - Engineering Windows 7 - MSLearn
- UAC in Windows 7 was a significant improvement upon its equivalent in Vista.
So we are diverging from MS's intentions by being routinely logged in to Admin user accounts.

What appears to be the whole series is now available at Engineering Windows 7 - MSLearn

Having said all that, Windows breaks UAC rules itself.
- If I'm logged into an Admin user account then I can set/clear the metered setting for a network. No UAC prompt appears.
- If I'm logged into a Standard user account then the metered setting for a network does not even appear.

All the best,
Denis

zebal · Dec 20, 2023

We have all heard of user data theft from various online services like various mail providers etc.
Targeted companies have fixed the problem with their systems to prevent such failures in the future, however they can't make stolen data stop being stolen, it's stolen for good at the expense of users and they can do nothing about it.

That's why protection of data is far more important that protection of systems, one can be fixed the other is screwed for good.

So use your Admin account to protect your data, not your system, your personal information is all that matters.

pparks1 · Dec 20, 2023

Try3 said:
I can go days without any Admin prompt appearing despite keeping my UAC at the highest level.
After completing installations, I'd be surprised if I need to grant Admin approval more than half a dozen times a week.

Denis

Yeah, i've never understood the concerns from those who have to approve the occasional UAC message. On my work computer, I have to actually type in my secondary account password for every UAC prompt, on my home computer I just click on okay. Neither of those are so frequent that it's a problem.

Berton · Dec 20, 2023

A computer user can get confused by the accounts. The first time a computer is set up the User at the time is set with Administrator Rights. Succeeding Users can be set as having Admin. rights or as being a Standard User. Then there's the Microsoft Account or the Local Account for each user as desired. Finally, there is the hidden Administrator which is not normally suggested to use in usual activities, it has to be first be activated from within Windows then deactivated when no longer needed, it normally does not have a password assigned.

Winuser · Dec 20, 2023

I have two accounts on my desktops and they both are Administrator accounts. One is my main account and the other is a safe guard in case my main account gets corrupted.

Berton · Dec 20, 2023

Winuser said:
I have two accounts on my desktops and they both are Administrator accounts. One is my main account and the other is a safe guard in case my main account gets corrupted.

That shouldn't be a problem but have seen where a second account was given the exact same user name and all data was saved to the only name in C:\Users\USERNAMEHERE, difficult to separate the data as needed.

Berton · Dec 20, 2023

One other thing, if the same E-Mail address is used and both accounts are Microsoft Accounts the User's folder names may be the first 5 letters of that address, further confusion. Personally I'd make the second account as Local with Admin. rights.

Winuser · Dec 20, 2023

Berton said:
That shouldn't be a problem but have seen where a second account was given the exact same user name and all data was saved to the only name in C:\Users\USERNAMEHERE, difficult to separate the data as needed.

They do have different names. One is my name and the other is named Admin. I do log into it on occasion. Especially after updating to a new Insider build.

Winuser · Dec 20, 2023

Berton said:
One other thing, if the same E-Mail address is used and both accounts are Microsoft Accounts the User's folder names may be the first 5 letters of that address, further confusion.

That is why when I'm setting up a new computer I never sign-in to my MS account until after it's setup. I'll never understand why MS doesn't give us an option to choose our user name.

Berton · Dec 20, 2023

The last 2 new installs I did of Win11 no longer allowed bypassing the Microsoft Account so after finishing I set up new Local Accounts with Admin rights then rebooted and removed the Microsoft Account. Installing over Win10 didn't have that issue on the one I just finished.

dacrone · Dec 20, 2023

Wynona said:
Hoo Boy, have I made a mess!

As we all know, our user account doubles as an admin account.

I don't know how it happened, but I now have a user account, an admin account and a broken admin account that happened when I attempted to change my sign-in options. I wanted to be able to sign in without typing in my four digit number.

Just make sure the accounts you don’t want to show/use have a password assigned, then run Cmd as admin:

Code:
Code:

net user (username) /active:no

Berton · Dec 20, 2023

Got a new Notebook couple weeks ago and during setup it never asked for a Password, just a PIN. And the Microsoft Account needed an E-Mail address but I used one that I seldom used.

Winuser · Dec 20, 2023

Berton said:
The last 2 new installs I did of Win11 no longer allowed bypassing the Microsoft Account so after finishing I set up new Local Accounts with Admin rights then rebooted and removed the Microsoft Account. Installing over Win10 didn't have that issue on the one I just finished.

The fake user name and email address didn't work?

zebal · Dec 20, 2023

Berton said:
The last 2 new installs I did of Win11 no longer allowed bypassing the Microsoft Account

Does BYPASSNRO no longer works?
It worked fine for fresh install of win. 23H2 in my case, but you have to be disconnected from internet.

Winuser said:
The fake user name and email address didn't work?

Fake MS account (which you use only to setup windows) should work.
followed by deletion of the account on computer and replacing it with local account.

Bree · Dec 20, 2023

Berton said:
The last 2 new installs I did of Win11 no longer allowed bypassing the Microsoft Account....

I'm still finding that disconnected from the internet the OOBE\BypassNRO method still works.

pparks1 · Dec 20, 2023

Bree said:
I'm still finding that disconnected from the internet the OOBE\BypassNRO method still works.

i just use nobody@nobody.com with a fake password, it says oops something went wrong and it allows me to create my local account. No need to disconnect from internet.

callisto · Dec 20, 2023

One admin account, UAC max, if something smells fishy at all I let Macrium do its job (a very rare instance as I believe the malware problem is vastly overblown.)

forumwt · Dec 20, 2023

pparks1 said:
i just use nobody@nobody.com with a fake password, it says oops something went wrong and it allows me to create my local account. No need to disconnect from internet.

I don’t think this can be used anymore. I installed two windows today and there was a problem on both of them. MS said they couldn’t find nobody@nobody.com and that I would need to create an account

Winuser · Dec 20, 2023

forumwt said:
I don’t think this can be used anymore. I installed two windows today and there was a problem on both of them. MS said they couldn’t find nobody@nobody.com and that I would need to create an account

If MS would allow us to chose our user name I wouldn't have a problem using my MS account to do a clean install. I only do the work around so I can decide what username I want. The first 5 letters of my email address looks stupid.

Do you have both a User account and an Admin account?

Do you have both a User account and an Admin account?

I have only one account

I have both but normally sign in with my User account

I have both but normally sign in with my Admin account

Other (because there's always one!

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