ERROR: Logon failure: unknown username or bad password

Every time I want too run a .exe field or a program that needs administrative permission, I type in my password using User Account Control but instead of just letting me through it come with this error:

Logon failure: unknown username or bad password.

I've searched for fixes but haven't found one that works.

This has been a very big problem as I am a Computer gamer and all the games I have, have the administrative sign (Shield) and or are .exe files.

This has been going on for around 3 or 4 months now...It really is getting on my nerves. Since there is no way to shut off User Account Control (UAC) without opening UAC itself....I really am desperate just so you know I'm running on Vista. For further detail just ask me!

And by the way thanks for your help and suggestions

Also I'm running on a:

Manufacturer: Acer
Model: Aspire M1201
Processor: AMD(tm) 8550 Triple-Core Processor 2.20 GHz
Memory (RAM): 3.00 GB
System Type: 32-bit Operating System

Sorry to revive an old topic, but this may help anyone trying to help me!

I do not have administration priviliges as it will not let me login into my admin account.

I recently changed the password on my 2nd account and the same thing happened to my standard account, I'm on my 3rd and final account.

I believe the changing of passwords has something to do with it.

Hi Michael D S,

Welcome to Vista Forums!

Let me first apologize that nobody responded to your first inquiry - it was either overlooked or nobody who looked knew what to suggest and so nothing was posted.

Let me make sure I understand the situation. You have three user accounts. One is a standard account, one is an admininistrator account, and I don't know about the third (but suspect it is also a standard account because you said "my administrator account" implying you have only one). On two, you cannot login after changing the password. The third you can (and I assume have not changed its password) but have no administrative priviledges so you can't create an administrator account with it to resolve the problem.

If this is the case, you have a serious problem. Because an Administrator account exists (even if you can't login with it or use it to get past UAC), you pretty much cannot activate the built-in Administrator account. If you had no Administrator accounts, you could login to Safe Mode and would automatically be setup as the built-in administrator account - but because it exists that won't happen. The normal procedures to activate the built-in administrator account require administrative priviledges, so they won't work either. With a standard account, you can't change any account to an Administrator account or access other accounts to make changes or delete the current Administrator account (so the built-in one would work in Safe Mode) or pretty much do anything.

Even though apparently caused by some problem with the password changing feature, the situation is the same as if you lost or forgot your password. For that, we really can't assist you as it would be providing a method to bypass normal security for the system and we aren't allowed to do that.

I'm sorry to say that your only real option (that we are allowed to provide) is to backup whatever you can (if you are permitted to do so anywhere but for the account that works - You may be able to use Knoppix http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html with a good ISO copier like: http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm along with a blank CD. This might give you enough access to the system (if you can't get in any other way) to backup your important data. If that doesn’t work, try slaving the drive to another computer and recovering the data using that other computer to access the disk.) and then do either a clean install or restore the system to factory settings. Either process will create a new administrator account and you can then start over again.

I'm sorry we can't be of more assistance, but hopefully you now understand the situation better and know your options better.

Good luck and best wishes!