Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it
Option 1: Regain lost admin rights in Windows 10 through Safe Mode
Step 1 : Log in to your current Admin account where you have lost administrative rights.
Step 2 : Open the PC Settings panel and select Accounts.
Step 3 : Select Family & other users , then click Add someone else to this PC .
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 1
Step 4 : Click I don't have this person's sign-in information .
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 2
Step 5 : Click Add a user without a Microsoft account.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 3
Step 6 : Enter the username, then click Next. This will add a new local account on your PC.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 4
Step 7 : Press Win + R keys to bring up the Run dialog box , type cmd and press Enter.
Step 8 : After the Command Prompt window opens, type shutdown /r /o and press Enter.
Step 9 : After Windows 10 reboots to the "Choose an option" screen , click Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings . Then click Restart.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 5
Step 10 : On the Startup Settings screen , press number 4 to turn on Safe Mode.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 6
Step 11 : After Windows 10 starts in Safe Mode, open Control Panel. Go to User Accounts > Manage another account , select the new local account you added in step 6, then click the Change the account type link . Select Administrator and click Change Account Type to change the account from standard user to admin.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 7
Step 12 : Restart your PC to bring Windows 10 out of Safe Mode and back to normal mode. Log in to Windows 10 with a new admin account. Now, you have regained administrator rights in Windows 10 and can delete the assigned Admin account that you lost administrator rights to.
Option 2: Modify account settings from Registry Editor
1. Open Settings .
2. Then, access 'Update and Security' settings .
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 8
3. Then, click "Recovery".
4. Then, in the 'Advanced Startup' section , click 'Restart Now'.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 9
5. The next step is to click 'Troubleshoot'.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 10
6. To see more available options, you must click on "Advanced options".
7. You need to access "Command Prompt". So let's click on it.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 11
8. Set your account password to access the CMD terminal. Click 'Continue'.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 12
9. In the Command Prompt window, type or copy "regedit" and press Enter to open the Registry Editor on your computer.
NOTE: You need to create a Registry backup. Once you have opened the Registry Editor, you need to click File and then select Export from the menu bar.
10. In the Registry Editor window , select the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" branch to highlight it.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 13
11. Now, click on 'File' from the menu bar and then click on 'Load Hive'.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 14
12. In the Load Hive window , navigate to this location:
system root drive > Windows > System32
13. In the System32 folder , double-click the 'config' folder .
14. In the Config folder , scroll down to find and select the 'SAM' file.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 15
15. Now, click Open to load the hive in the registry branch.
16. You need to provide a name for the hive.
17. Name the key 'REM_SAM'. Click OK.
18. In the Registry Editor window, on the left side, navigate to this location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEREM_SAMSAMDomainsAccountsUsers HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEREM_SAMSAMDomainsAccountsUsers�00001F4 0001F4
19. Now, in the same window, on the right hand side, double click on the binary value 'F' to modify it.
20. In the Edit Binary Value window , go to line '00000038".
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 16
21. Place your cursor just to the right of '11' and press Delete from the keyboard.
22. Now, type '10' to change the value.
23. Finally, click OK to save the changes on your computer.
Close the Registry Editor and Command Prompt windows.
24. Return to the Choose an Option window , click Turn off your PC to turn it off.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 17
Restart your computer.
After restarting your computer, you will have administrative rights to your account again.
Note:
Trying to open file 'SAM' , you may see this error message 'The process cannot access the file it is being used by another process' or the message 'File is in use' .
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 18
To resolve the issue, follow these steps:
1. In the Registry Editor window, select the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" branch to highlight it.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 19
2. Now, click on 'File' from the menu bar and then click on 'Load Hive'.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 20
3. Now, click on 'Look in:' to open the drop-down menu.
Note : You are facing trouble because you are selecting the 'BOOT (X:)' drive on which CMD is running.
4. Select the system root drive on the computer (for this computer, it is the 'Local Disk (D:)' drive , usually Local Disk (C:) ) and then click 'Open'.
5. Now, scroll down and double-click on the 'Windows' folder.
6. In the same way, scroll down, find the 'System32' folder and access it.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 21
7. Now, double click on the 'Config' folder to access it.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 22
Then, follow the remaining instructions (from step 13) to modify the binary value and resolve the problem.
Option 3: Regain lost Admin rights on Windows 10 with the iSumsoft Windows Password Refixer tool
To use this option, you need to borrow a PC that you can access as admin.
Step 1 : On another PC that you can access with admin rights, download and install iSumsoft Windows Password Refixer.
Step 2 : Launch this tool and follow the steps to burn it to USB and create a bootable drive.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 23
Step 3 : Connect the bootable USB drive to the Windows 10 PC on which you have lost admin rights and set the PC to boot from USB.
Step 4 : After the " Windows Password Refixer " screen appears, click Add User . Then, enter the username in the dialog box and click OK. This will add a new local user with admin rights on Windows 10.
Lost Admin rights on Windows 10, this is how to fix it Picture 24
Step 5 : Click Reboot and exit the bootable USB drive to restart your PC. The new admin account will appear on the Windows 10 login screen. Log in to it and you have regained admin rights.
Wish you success!
You should read it
- Losing Admin permissions on Windows 10 / 8.1, this is a fix
- Changing user on Macbook has lost admin rights, what should Apple do?
- How to get admin rights on Windows
- How to launch Admin rights application for User account in Windows?
- How to set up always opening applications with admin rights on Windows 11
- How to assign admin rights to users in Ubuntu
- How to open Notepad with admin rights
- How to grant Admin rights to a User in Win 10
- How to assign Administrator permissions on a Windows 7 computer?
- How to open admin and folder permissions in Nautilus
- 4 ways to run the software using administrative rights in Windows
- The chat group on Facebook Messenger adds administrative rights
May be interested
Fix TouchPad error on HP Stream 11 Laptop not working
How to properly copy and move files on Windows
Copy data from BlueStacks to computer or laptop
How to open and use MSConfig on Windows 10
How to fix the error of your computer taking a long time to start up and not turning on
What is Windows Superfetch (SysMain)? How to disable Superfetch?