In every Windows operating system version the default Administrator account is locked out. This makes the newly created user as the administrator, at least until the default account is unlocked. This account can be manually unlocked to perform some administrative functions that your secondary local user may not be able to perform. Although the user created during the installation process might appear to have administrative privileges, it still does not have the ability to perform certain tasks. Things might even seem more complicated with Windows 8, since you might be unable to write data to your C drive without the administrator account. See below instructions regarding the unlocking of the default Windows 8 administrator account.
To get started right-click on Computer (My Computer) and select Manage. It is not necessary that you right-click a desktop icon for My Computer, as you can even do so from within Windows Explorer or any other section of Windows that displays the My Computer icon. If you would like to know how to display the default desktop icons in WIndos8, then check out my post: How To Show My Computer And Other Desktop Icons In Windows 8.
In the next step, click Local Users and Groups –> Users and right-click on Administrator. Select Properties from right-click context menu.
Note: Other than unlocking the Administrator account you can also set a password for it from the “Set Password” option. You will however, need administrative rights to perform this task. This section in “Computer Management” can be used to perform all kinds of local user tasks, including, renaming, password management, group management of the user, etc.
From here, uncheck “Account is disabled” option and click Apply, OK.
When you log off, you will be able to see the Administrator account.
Once logged in from the default Administrator account, you will be able to have complete access to your operating system, so make sure that you do no install programs or send commands that may damage your system. If at any point you would like to remove the other user, go to Computer Management once more, right-click on the username and select delete. Please bear in mind that this will also delete all files present within that user, e.g. files on the desktop and other local folders like My Documents.
Some users keep two local users, i.e. the Administrator and the one with less privileges. The latter is used for browsing and regular activities to avoid malware from gaining control of the system, by taking over the Administrator account or to prevent damaging the operating system due to a misconfiguration.
You can also check out the below video to see the process of unlocking the Administrator account. This video is also available on the WML Cloud YouTube Channel.
