I want to create an adminstrator account. When I go into Manage Accounts, I only see two accounts. Me (as administrator) and Guest (which is turned off).

I tried to create a new account called Administrator and was told that an account by that name already existed. It doesn't show up in Manage Accounts.

If that is the case, how do I switch to it? Switch accounts only shows me at the logon screen.

thanks

Hello Lucian,

There is a default account named "Administrator" which is automatically created when Windows is setup. It is an account that gives you elevated administrative access, and should only really be used as a backup account, if you have problems accessing your usual computer administrator accounts, or if you need to take back ownership of files to name a few examples. So it is not recommended to use this account for day to day use on a local PC.

With Windows Vista, this account is actually disabled on installation, and needs to be activated. This link describes how to enable this account: How To: Enable Vista's Administrator Account

Hi MadMonkey,
this is exactly what I wanted to do. Some time ago when running XP Pro, I copied some files to disk, DVD-R, as a backup measure (ha).

Some file on the disk (obviously the ones that I want) are protected - read only. I can't change the attributes on the DVD so I tried to copy them to HDD. Only the folders were copied. The files were not there. So I thought I would try as Administrator. No luck.

I know the files are there because the attributes show their size etc. I just don't have permission to change them, and of course I don't have permission to move/copy them either. When I try to copy the files, the error says invalid MS DOS function.

All of the files under this particular folder are inaccessible which makes me think it is a permissions problem on the folder. the folder is set to Read Only.

I've tried a text recovery converter but that didn't work either.

Of course, the files on CD will be read only, because you cannot change files on a CD once it has been closed, so copying them would make sense.

When you copy files from an NT File System (NTFS) to CD (CDFS), any permissions you had on files and folders are lost. When you copy them from CDFS to NTFS, these files and folders (depending on settings) will inherit whatever permissions are set on it's parent folder. You may also need to clear the "Read Only" attribute on these files which would have been set when burning these files to read only media.

First of all check the security settings on the parent folder. Right click on the folder, and go to Properties. Under the Security tab, make sure your user account has the Allow "Full Control" checked. From there, click on Advanced, and place a tick in "Replace permission entries on all child objects...", and apply/ok those settings.

To clear the read only attribute of your files (if applied), highlight all of your files, right click on them and go to Properties again. Under the "Attributes" setting at the bottom, clear the "Read Only" check box and apply/ok.

Changing the attributes on the folder/file when it is on the HDD is not the problem. The problem is that I am unable to copy the files to the HDD. The folders copy ok but not the files.

I think they got locked up on the dvd somehow. As I said, most folders copied ok from the dvd. All except this one folder and everything under it.

When I try to copy a file I get Invalid MS-DOS function!

Can you give me a screenshot Lucian, that error should only occur from a command prompt. I'm not quite sure what your trying to do.

How do I paste a screen shot please or do I need to make it into a .jpg ?