Parents faux pah!

[nicdonnellan]

My husband and I have just purchased an HP with Windows Vista Home Premium. We have 4 other users for this laptop, besides ourselves, all under the age of 16 years old. Thus, we decided to set up parental controls, to block web pages, view visited web pages, block downloads, and the such. Well, being the techies we are NOT, we have successfully blocked EVERYONE! LOL! And because of this, we are ALL set to standard users (is this the correct term?). Hence, from all the other websites and forums found on Google (of course), we can not for the life of us figure out how to get on as the administrator, and don't even remember setting either of ourselves to be this. So now, we have a computer for 6 people (2 of whom are adults) that can't access any downloads or certain websites (I may be an adult in my 30's, but I still like my Facebook!). Is there anyway we may be able to solve this ourselves without having to spend more $$$$$ to have someone fix it for us? Thank you so much in advance for ANY info or input.

 

[niemiro]

LOL (sorry!) It was very nicely written though!

First, Vista does not actually allow you to lock out every Administrator. However, that one is not always very easy to find! Try Safe Mode with Networking. See here: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88009-advanced-boot-options.html

See if you can access Safe Mode. That should allow you to remove at least a few restrictions/change one of your accounts to Admin. Once you have confirmed that you can get into Safe Mode, I will help you more.

Richard

 

[Jacee]

I think you need an "Administrator Account" (hidden) ...Please see this tutorial
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67567-administrator-account.html

Now, you should be able to 'control' all parental controls, and get to the sites you (as adults) want to.

 

[nicdonnellan]

Okay, so we were able to get on the computer with safe mode w/ networking. All that comes up are the six boxes for each of us, but no administrator box. (?????)

 

[Lottiemansion]

From the info, do this: -

1. Open a elevated command prompt.

2. To Enable the Hidden Built-In Administrator Account

A) In the elevated command prompt, type the command in bold below and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

net user administrator /active:yes
​

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You should then be able to log on as the administrator & change the settings back.