How to get admin rights on Windows

Windows separates user accounts into two levels: Administrator and Standard. Standard accounts can make changes that don't affect other people on the computer, such as personalization options or installing software. However, you need an admin account to change the clock, access protected system files, add users, and do similar things.

Maybe you tried to access something and got a message that you don't have admin rights. Today's article will show you how to get admin rights on Windows 10.

How to get admin rights on Windows?

• First, make sure you are allowed to have admin rights!
• User Account Control: Know Your Rights
• Forgot your admin account password?
• How to get admin rights on Windows
  • How to get admin rights on Windows 10 with Command Prompt
  • How to get admin rights on Windows 10 with PowerShell
• Built-in admin account replacement
• How to fix admin rights on your own account

First, make sure you are allowed to have admin rights!

It may sound obvious, but you probably don't have admin rights on a computer because the owner doesn't want you to. On a company computer or a computer owned by your parents, friends, etc., you may be limited to a standard account so you can't make major changes.

If you need admin access on someone else's computer, ask them to make changes or update your account with admin rights.

User Account Control: Know Your Rights

Windows uses a blue and yellow User Account Control (UAC) shield icon to indicate computer functions that require administrative privileges. If you try to perform an action, you'll see two different prompts depending on whether you're an administrator or not.

Admins simply click Yes when asked if they want to allow the program to make changes. Standard accounts must enter their admin password to proceed.

This allows you to perform administrative functions without having to log in to an admin account all the time. See the article: Understanding the nature of Windows UAC and why we should not disable it for more information..

If you want to upgrade a standard account to an admin account, another admin will need to go to Settings > Accounts > Family & other users . Select your account under Other People (or Your Family ) and click the Change account type button .

Change it from Standard User to Administrator and you will have full privileges.

Not disabling UAC is also a smart choice. Doing so will prevent standard accounts from seeing UAC prompts, so attempting to perform admin actions will go unnoticed.

To test this, type UAC into the Start menu and click Change User Account Control settings . Make sure the slider is not set to the bottom option Never Notify. The second option from the top is the default and should work fine in most cases.

Forgot your admin account password?

A common situation where you are unable to log in to your admin account is when you have lost your password. Fortunately, there is a workaround in this situation.

This article has covered how to reset your Windows password. If you use Microsoft credentials for your admin account, you can easily reset your password through the Microsoft portal. Local accounts have a few other methods for resetting your password, but they take a little more work.

When you recover your account password, you will have full admin rights again.

How to get admin rights on Windows

How to get admin rights on Windows 10 with Command Prompt

If you prefer using command line over GUI, you can do the following to get admin rights on Windows 10!

1. Type command prompt or cmd in the search box. Then from the search results, right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator to open CMD with admin rights.

2. You will get a User Account Control confirmation screen asking you to allow the program to make changes to your computer, click Yes.

3. On Command Prompt , to list all users on the computer, type the command below and press Enter.

net user

4. Copy the username for the user you want to grant admin rights to.

5. Finally, to grant admin rights on Windows 10 to the user, type the command below and press Enter.

Net Localgroup Administrators UserName /add

Replace UserName with the username for the user you want to add to the administrators group. In this example, the author wants to add the user, NewLocalUser, to the local administrators group. Here is the modified command:

Net Localgroup Administrators NewLocalUser /add

6. If the command returns "The command completed successfully" , you have successfully granted admin rights.

7. To remove admin rights, type the command below and press Enter.

Net Localgroup Administrators NewLocalUser /Delete

8. If the command returns "The command completed successfully" , the user's admin rights have been revoked.

How to get admin rights on Windows 10 with PowerShell

PowerShell is Microsoft's latest tool to help Windows administrators automate Windows tasks. If you want to use PowerShell to grant admin access, follow the steps below…

1. Type powershell in the search box. Then, in the right pane of the search results, under Windows PowerShell , click Run as Administrator .

2. You will get User Account Control asking for permission to open PowerShell, click Yes.

3. Then, on the PowerShell command prompt, to list all users on the local PC, type the command below and press Enter :

Get-LocalUser

4. The command will list all local users on the computer. Note the username for the user you want to add to the administrators group.

5. Then, to grant admin rights on Windows 10 using PowerShell, type this command and press Enter :

Add-LocalGroupMember -Group Administrators -Member NewLocalUser

Replace NewLocalUser with the username you want to give admin rights to.

6. To confirm that the user is now a member of the local administrators group, type the command below and press Enter .

Get-LocalGroupMember -Name administrators

7. Users will be listed as members:

8. If you want to revoke admin rights, use the command below.

Remove-LocalGroupMember -Group Administrators -Member NewLocalUser

Replace NewLocalUser with the username you want to set as admin.

9. Finally, to confirm that the user has been successfully removed from the local administrators group, use the command below…

Get-LocalGroupMember -Name administrators

10. The result of the command confirms that the user, NewLocalUser is no longer a member of the Administrators group.

Built-in admin account replacement

If you try to open Command Prompt with admin rights above and are unable to do so due to lack of admin rights, you will have to enable the admin account using a workaround.

To do this, please refer to the guide: Forgot Windows 10 password, this is how to crack Win 10 password without using 3rd party tools for more details.

How to fix admin rights on your own account

Once you're signed in with an admin account, you can use Windows tools to troubleshoot issues with your own admin account. Start by going to the same accounts page as before to make sure your account is actually an admin: Settings > Accounts > Family & other users .

Click your account name under Other users (or Your family , if applicable) and then click the Change account type button . Change the drop-down box from Standard User to Administrator if it isn't already.

Another way to do this is through the User Accounts page. Type netplwiz into the Start menu (or Run Win + menu R) to access it. Here you will see a list of all the users on your machine.

Click a user and click the Properties button , then select the Group Membership tab. You can change the account from Standard users to Administrators. The Other option contains many other uncommon account types.

There's one other place you should check to make sure you haven't missed any permissions. Open a File Explorer window to This PC. Under Devices and drives , right-click your primary storage drive (probably your C: drive) and select Properties.

In the resulting window, switch to the Security tab. Next, click the Advanced button near the bottom. You’ll see a full list of permissions for each user group on your PC. This will vary depending on what you’ve changed, but here’s an idea of ​​what a typical permissions list looks like:

Make sure that the Administrators group has Full Control listed for Access. If not, then you will see why you cannot view all files. Click the Change permissions button first to make changes, then double-click the group to modify.

Make sure Full control is checked for the Administrators group. Remember, you shouldn't change anything else here that you're not sure about. If you're still having trouble, try creating a new admin account at Settings > Accounts > Family & other users > Add someone else to this PC .

Good luck!

See more articles below:

• Instructions on how to log into your computer when you forget your password
• Enable Standard User to run the program as Admin without password
• Trick to run Control Panel as Admin on Windows