Thread: Adding Administrator with privileges to an XP system

I was gifted with a DELL D600 notebook with Win 2000. The Administrator (user) was deleted. I upgraded to XP SP2 without knowing Administrator had been eliminated. Administrator does NOT show in SAFE MODE, nor can Administrator be used to boot the machine.

Is there any way to add Administrator with privileges to the system?

Upgraded to XP Home?

I am currently using XP Pro.

Start the computer and let Windows XP start. If Windows XP opens to the new user's desktop, click Start, LogOff, and then LogOff again. This will log off Windows XP and open a friendly logon screen.

At the friendly logon screen press Ctrl + Alt + Del keys twice. A smaller logon window appears. Type Administrator into the Username field. Type in a password if one was used for the Administrator account (usually, there is no password). Click OK . Windows is now logged onto the original Administrator Account.

Once you are at the desktop, go to user accounts in Control panel and create a New user account and give it administrator rights, restart the PC and log into the new account.

There are two kinds of Admin account in XP pro, User accounts with admin rights, and the real admin account that is hidden when there are any other user accounts present. I don't recommend using the hidden admin account for daily use.