Built a computer not the admin

Ozark Mountain · Mar 25, 2016

I'm beginning to hate Microsoft.

Built Desktop
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
Gigabyte Motherboard

I've tried all the tricks I could google to be able to make Administrator changes just like I can on my laptop (Acer Aspire V3-551 8664) which is also Windows 7 but its Home 64 bit.

My issues:
Can't uninstall programs - I get an Admin notice saying "Other users are logged in, do you still want to uninstall? Y/N" I click yes, and either nothing happens or it gives me the "This program may already be uninstalled" line of <mod edit>.

Can't make any changes to user accounts - the Admin sheild shows up on the hyperlink, I click it and nothing happens.

I started using Revo Uninstaller - only detects 1/3 of my programs, not the ones that I want to uninstall

Refuses to create backup restore points - it never works. Always says that the operation failed.

Sometimes I'll be trying to free up C: Drive space and the computer just crashes, like it is right now. I got it to start in safe mode, whole system was super-lagging, then crashed again.

I'm beginning to feel like I spent $1600 on parts that fit together with an OS that is manufactured to be obstinant to my every desire.

Saga Lout · Mar 25, 2016

Go into c:\windows\system32 and right click on the file cmd.exe then seleect RunAs Administrator.

At the prompt in the blac form that shows up type
net user Administrator /active:yes
then hit Enter.

Type exit to close that form then restart the computer. On the startup you will see an extra account icon for the Administrator. Log into that account and see if you can do what you want to. When you've finished with it and want to get back to a single account the Command syntax will be as above except you will need /active:no. That puts him back to sleep.

Ozark Mountain · Mar 25, 2016

Saga Lout :

I wish it was that easy. I guess I should have specified in my original post that I have tried this. All it does is result in the computer crashing. What is worse is in this "Admin" mode I still cant do anything that I want to do. I get the same error messages and dead links that I get from my named user profile.

BadAsAl · Mar 25, 2016

Did you do a clean install of Windows 7 when you built this computer? Or did you clone another drive?

Saga Lout · Mar 25, 2016

In the hundreds of W7 systems that have passed through my hands over six years or so, I haven't come across one which wouldn't behave better under the System Administrator's account than any others. How have accounts are there?

I suspect malware so are you able to run some strong malware utilities? MalwareBytes free version will find and deal with a lot.

Ozark Mountain · Mar 28, 2016

BadAsAl :

I made a clean install from disk.

Ozark Mountain · Mar 28, 2016

Saga Lout :

I will try it. It is possible that malware has somehow embedded itself in my pc but I keep a close eye on what gets put on it.

jsmithepa · Mar 28, 2016

Highly Odd. This is a legit Windows copy dare I ask?

Maybe something happened between clean install to NOW.

I install my stuff in Phases:

Clean install, admin account only. Do a image backup.
Install Updates, Do another image backup.
Run the machine for a few days, not do any weird things, not downloading, no torrent, solid? Do another image backup.
OK now you can add accounts and do the other things.

By doing step-by-step, you are able to know, aha, it gets weird between step 2 and step 3 etc. Follow the logic?

hang-the-9 · Mar 28, 2016

You should not be getting the message about other user's being logged on unless you did an account switch or someone is remoted into the system.

Are you doing things from a clean boot? Need some background info about the system, a clean Windows setup will give the first account admin rights, something must have been changed since then.

You may just want to do a clean Windows setup on the computer again.

Saga Lout · Mar 28, 2016

If you can get in using the Administrator account for long enough, you could rename your current Profile .old and go for the .bak version the system created when you signed in the first time.

It's the nearest thing you have to a stable Profile but you need the Registry editing facility to clean it up.

Ozark Mountain · Apr 4, 2016

hang-the-9 :

I had a buddy remote in with TeamViewer10 during setup to help me fix some issues. Could that be causing it?

hang-the-9 · Apr 4, 2016

Ozark Mountain :

Depends on what was done. If thing were done using a remote command using a secondary admin user or something, then the account and rights may have gotten messed up. I'd just do a clean setup on the system if it's a new build anyway.

Ozark Mountain · Apr 5, 2016

So now I am having additional issues. I am running an i7-4790K and 16gb ram, and the computer keeps crashing. I unplugged it for a minute, plugged it back in, started it up, then opened the internet and Windows task manager. According to task manager I was only using 2gb of ram, but 63-99% of my cpu capabilities - then another crash.

Ozark Mountain · Apr 5, 2016

hang-the-9 :

I only had him setup a disk partition because I had never done that before

hang-the-9 · Apr 7, 2016

Ozark Mountain :

Did you run scans on the hardware? Check for hard drive errors (use a utility from the drive vendor not check check disk from Windows), re-seat motherboard connections, etc...

Try clean Windows setup yet?

Ozark Mountain · Apr 27, 2016

BadAsAl :

Sorry I have been busy with work. I haven't tried it yet. How do I do a clean install?

Could I just take out my old drive and install a drive with windows 7 already on is and then redownload my drivers from that point?

Saga Lout · Apr 27, 2016

If nothing else, it would cause problems at Activation time. If you had all the motherboard drivers on a CD and you put those in first, you might just get away with the installation but the licence problem wold still exist.

hang-the-9 · Apr 27, 2016

Ozark Mountain :

You can't plug in a drive from another system, you need to install Windows clean on yours. You said you had a recovery partition earlier, use that to restore the system to factory new. Make sure you backup your files and any settings you need to note before doing that.

Ozark Mountain · Apr 28, 2016

BadAsAl :

Well the problem I keep running into is that when I try to set backup restore points it tells me that "cannot be completed" or "there was an error" and it never completes the backup

hang-the-9 · Apr 28, 2016

Ozark Mountain :

I don't mean a restore point, we are talking about a full clean Windows setup using the Windows media or recovery partition. Not a restore point. If it was a system you put together, just install Windows on it the same way you originally did after backing up your files and any settings you want to note. Need to grab Favorites from all browsers, My Documents, Desktop, email files if you keep them in a program like Outlook (PST, OST files,, things like that), etc.. and setup Windows again.

Ozark Mountain · Jan 17, 2017

I ended up buying a completely different hard drive and doing a fresh install on it.

Built a computer not the admin

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