Show me the way to go home (back to W8.1)

No matter what I do, I can't gain administrative privileges for my W10 PC:

Never prompted to elevate privilege as administrator - Windows 10 blog

I never reset my administrative password when I upgraded - it just doesn't like it anymore.

I'd like to throw in the towel, and go back to W8.1. Alas, I have to be an administrator to do so!

If I boot WinPE from a thumb drive, run the command prompt, and attempt this:

TO RESET A FORGOTTEN ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD, FOLLOW THESE STEPS: - Spiceworks

I'm told that access is denied to the C: drive. From what I've read, ntpasswd is a miracle cure - except, I haven't read that anyone's used it with success on W10 (one user claims it was *not*).

Is there anything left for me to try, before I do a complete wipe and reinstall of W8?

adTHANKSvance
Dan

Try this tutorial if you want to stay with W10 Windows 10 - Clean Install

Otherwise a reinstall of 8 might be the only way, somebody else might come along with another option(s) Give it a day or two to see what responses are posted if you can wait that long.

You can use a boot CD like Digiwiz MiniPE or a Windows 10 Live Recovery Disk which includes a utility to see the user password or create a new administrator user. Using MiniPE, go at Programs -> System Tools -> Password Renew 1.1 Beta. Click Select target and browse to your Windows folder. Then select Create new Administrator user, type an account name and an easy password such as 1234. I haven't tested in Windows 10, but in Windows 7 and 8 you cannot reset an existing Administrator password (doesn't work). Fortunately you can create a new Administrator user. So all you have to do is to restart in Windows 10, login with the new user and then clear password of the old Administartor user. Then logoff and login with the old user and delete the new user. I have done it many times in Windows 7 with success when a customer forgets his password and cannot login in Windows.

PS: WindowsPE is based on Windows XP and may have difficulty detecting your hard disk in AHCI mode. Go into BIOS, change to IDE mode, use the recovery disc and then change it back to AHCI to boot into Windows.

Try this tutorial if you want to stay with W10 Windows 10 - Clean Install

Otherwise a reinstall of 8 might be the only way, somebody else might come along with another option(s) Give it a day or two to see what responses are posted if you can wait that long.

Sure, I can hang around for a day or two - it will take me that long to catalog my programs and copy off my data. The good news is, I have an operational system, I just can't do anything that requires administrative privileges.

But given the recalcitrance of my system as it presently stands, I foresee that a clean install of W10 will require administrative access somewhere along the line, which I simply don't have. It's been weeks now of me fighting this system; I'm loathe to persist. If I can't find a way to go back to W8.1 in a friendly way, then I'm going to firebomb it.

But thanks for the advice. All and any suggestions welcome.

Dan

You can use a boot CD like Digiwiz MiniPE or a Windows 10 Live Recovery Disk which includes a utility to see the user password or create a new administrator user. Using MiniPE, go at Programs -> System Tools -> Password Renew 1.1 Beta. Click Select target and browse to your Windows folder. Then select Create new Administrator user, type an account name and an easy password such as 1234. I haven't tested in Windows 10, but in Windows 7 and 8 you cannot reset an existing Administrator password (doesn't work). Fortunately you can create a new Administrator user. So all you have to do is to restart in Windows 10, login with the new user and then clear password of the old Administartor user. Then logoff and login with the old user and delete the new user. I have done it many times in Windows 7 with success when a customer forgets his password and cannot login in Windows.

PS: WindowsPE is based on Windows XP and may have difficulty detecting your hard disk in AHCI mode. Go into BIOS, change to IDE mode, use the recovery disc and then change it back to AHCI to boot into Windows.

It was an interesting thought - that the reason access was denied to my C: drive was because it was in AHCI mode. I changed it; still, access denied.

I'll try Digiwiz MiniPE when I have access to another system tomorrow where I can burn it (you guessed it: Can't, from my home system), but I'm not hopeful. Still pulling on each and every straw, but I see a scorched earth approach in my future. (Thanks, Bill Gates.)

Dan

I've had this problem multiple times.

What has fixed it for me is to add Everyone with full access then click Yes to the following

:

Scary message but I have not found any negative results and I can h=now access almost all of C: via the network.
You could make it read and execute instead of full access and it should work as well.

To avoid problems in the future, DON'T USE the build-in Administrator account. Create a new Administrator account without password (if only you are using the computer) or an easy to remember password (but not easy to guess).