Is there any way to remove another administrator account?

Punkrulz

Somewhat eXPerienced
Joined
24 Dec 2001
Messages
790
Hey guys,

Before I went on my senior trip, I wanted to create a limited account for my brother in law so he can play Command and Conquer - Generals. The thing that sucked though, is that I was always logged in on the main Administrator account... To create the "bob" account, it wanted me to create another administrator account.

So, I created the account "dan" with the same privileges as the regular default Administrator account, then I could create the "bob" account... I returned from my senior trip, and I want to resume just using the administrator account, and I want to delete the "bob" and "dan" accounts... I deleted the "bob" account no problem, but I don't have any way to delete the "dan" account. Is there a way to do it?
 
Did you rename the default admin account? If so, just rename it back to "Administrator". I would keep the default admin account renamed anyways just as an added precautionary measure. Here's something you can try.
Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Local Users and Groups -> Users
This should let you see what all users are identified on your machine. Find the one who's description is "Built in account for administrating..." and rename it to Administrator if necessary. You can use TweakUI from here to set who logs in automatically (as well as other nifty stuff).
 
You will not be able to delete an administrator account if it is the only one, and with that said you can not delete an account that is logged on. Make sure that the account has been logged off of (and not just "switched" from).

Right click on My Computer
Select Properties
Select the User Profiles tab

You should be able to do it from there. Good luck.
 
You CAN delete an account while logged into it (at least in XP I know you can). It will ask if you are really sure and whatnot, but you can delete it while logged in with it. Of course, once you logout, that account will be dead. You can't kill any built-in accounts tho (admin and guest).
 
zyfos: no you can not. NTUSER.DAT is in use and it WILL NOT let you delete that account because of it.
 
YES, you can delete the profile if you use the explorer. But that is not the correct way to delete an account. And still, it will not let you remove NTUSER.DAT (or NTUSER.MAN depending on if it's roaming or not)
 
If you go through Computer Management to kill (delete) the account you are currently logged in as, it will kill the user's unique identifier thingy and will, more or less, kill the account, but all the account files will remain and have to be deleted manually though explorer (while logged in as someone else). It's a somewhat messy way of doing things I guess. I should have better worded my previous response, sorry for the misunderstanding.
 
This is actually a complex subject and depends on both the version of XP your using and how you have set-up and configured XP, user accounts, passwords and even the number of accounts marked as “admin” and the file system in use along with how the volumes have been configured on your machine.

More info please.

:)
 
Well its XP Professional, I only use the main administrator account, the built in one... however when I wanted to create that limited account, I was forced to create a second administrator account, one that wasn't built in... so after doing so, I had

"Administrator"
"Dan" {Set as another administrator}
and then I created "Bob". Well when I got back from my trip, I deleted the "Bob" account, but it won't let me delete the "Dan" account, and I don't know why. I tried going through the users in the control panel where you can change icon and delete accounts and stuff, but the thing is that the delete button does not appear for the "Dan" account. I never renamed the main "Administrator" account to Dan, I just created a second one.
 
You may have to resort to this utility. Before doing this make sure that the account you are trying to delete will not produce another "orphaned" account underneath it.

This courtesy of MS: -

Open a "cmd" window from the run icon by clicking on it and typing cmd and hitting the return key.

Using the Net User and Net Localgroup Commands

If you prefer a terse Command Prompt window to a gooey utility, you'll want to use Net.exe for managing local users and groups. To change any local user account or group information, you need to be logged on as a member of the local Administrators group. (Alternatively, you can use Run As to launch the Command Prompt window, or you can precede each command you enter in a Command Prompt window with runas /user:administrator.)
In the following sections, we describe only the most common Net commands (and their most common parameters) for managing local users and groups. This isn't an exhaustive reference, however. You can get that information from online help or by typing net help command , replacing command with the word that follows Net in the examples. For instance, to get more information about the Net Localgroup command, type net help localgroup. This provides more help than typing net localgroup /?, which shows only the command syntax.
Net User
The Net User command lets you view, add, modify, or delete user accounts.
Viewing User Account Information Typing net user with no parameters causes the program to display the name of your computer and a list of local user accounts. If you follow Net User with the name of a local user account (for example, net user jan ), Net User displays all information about the user account, as shown in the sample that follows.
C:\>net user


User accounts for \\SEQUOIA

------------------------------------------------------------
Administrator Carl Guest
HelpAssistant Jan SUPPORT_388945a0
The command completed successfully.


C:\>net user jan

User name Jan
Full Name Jan
Comment
User's comment
Country code 000 (System Default)
Account active Yes
Account expires Never

Password last set 7/4/2001 12:43 PM
Password expires Never
Password changeable 7/4/2001 12:43 PM
Password required Yes
User may change password Yes

Workstations allowed All
Logon script
User profile
Home directory
Last logon 7/4/2001 11:54 AM

Logon hours allowed All

Local Group Memberships *Users
Global Group memberships *None
The command completed successfully.

Adding or Modifying a User Account Following Net User username, you can append any or all of the parameters. For example, you can add anew account for a user named Josie, create a complex password, and prevent Josie from changing the password with the following command:
C:\>net user Josie /add /random /passwordchg:no
Password for Josie is: nkHRE$oU

The command completed successfully.

Useful Parameters for the Net User Command

password or * or /Random Sets the password. If you type an asterisk (*), Net User prompts for the password you want to assign; it does not display the password as you type it. The /Random switch generates a hard-to-crack, eight-character password.
/Add Creates a new user account. The user name must be 20 characters or fewer and can't contain any of these characters: " / \ [ ] : ; | = , + * ? < >
/Fullname:"name " Specifies the user's full name.
/Comment:"text " Provides a descriptive comment (maximum length of 48 characters).
/Passwordchg:yes or /Passwordchg:no
Specifies whether the user is allowed to change the password.
/Active:no or /Active:yes Disables or enables the account. (When an account is disabled, the user can't log on or access resources on the computer.)
/Expires:date or /Expires:never Sets the expiration date for an account. For date, use the short date format set in Regional Options. The account expires at the beginning of the day on the specified date; from that time on, the user can't log on or access resources on the computer until an administrator sets a new expiration date.
/Passwordreq:yes or /Passwordreq:no Specifies whether the user account is required to have a nonblank password.
/Times:times or /Times:all Sets the times when an account is allowed to log on. For times, enter the days of the week you want to allow logon. Use a hyphen to specify a range of days or use a comma to list separate days. Following each day entry, specify the allowable logon times. For example, type M-F,8am-6pm; Sa,9am-1pm to restrict logon times to normal working hours. Use All to allow logon at any time; a blank value prevents the user from ever logging on.

Note: -

The last three switches (/Expires, /Passwordreq, and /Times) allow you to make settings that you can't make (or even view) using Local Users And Groups. These switches provide some powerful options that are otherwise available only with Windows 2000 Server or Windows .NET Server.

Deleting a User Account To remove a user account from the local security database, simply use the /Delete switch with the Net User command, like this:
C:\>net user josie /delete

The command completed successfully.

Net Localgroup
The Net Localgroup command lets you view, add, modify, or delete local security groups.
Viewing Group Information Type net localgroup with no parameters to display the name of your computer and a list of local groups. If you follow Net Localgroupwith the name of a group (for example, net localgroup "power users" ), Net Localgroup lists the members of the group.
Adding or Deleting a Group Following Net Localgroup groupname, append /Add to create a new group or append /Delete to remove an existing group. When you add a group or view its information, you can optionally add a descriptive comment (maximum length of 48 characters) by appending the /Comment:"text " switch.
Adding or Deleting Group Members You can add local user accounts, domain user accounts, and global groups to a local group (though you can't add other local groups). To do so, enter the names of the users or groups to add after the group name (separate multiple names with a space) and include the /Add switch. For example, to add Jan and Josie to the Power Users group, use this command:
C:\>net localgroup "power users" jan josie /add

The command completed successfully.

To delete one or more group members, use the same syntax, replacing the /Add switch with /Delete.

If this does not work you are not logged on as the administrator.
 
Is that all I have to do, is:

/net user dan /delete ?

Or is it more in depth than that?

so would it be C:\net user dan /delete?

Sorry, I'm not good with the console. :/
 
First at the command prompt type “net user” then press the return key.

Is the account you are attempting to delete displayed?

If so, type in your suggestion, don’t worry about the syntax. If it’s wrong an error message will be produced.

What about if the account is not displayed?

This can happen if you have set the account to the same privileges as your account (which should not be displayed, if it is you will have to flag the drive where the XP operating system resides as “dirty” and re-boot: this will rebuild the indexes and security descriptors), it will not be displayed along with all accounts above yours so you will never be able to delete it. Or you can “downgrade” the account to a lower level and try again.

None of the above will work though unless you are logged on as the system administrator (actual).
 
Ok, well the account I want to delete is Dan Lewis... but on the main login screen it's only listed as Dan, something I do'nt understand. Something else is I am typing net user Dan Lewis /delete and it keeps bringing up the syntax, I try Dan and same thing, for some reason everytime I try to delete it, it brings up the syntax. I am logged in as the actual admin too.
 
1. Re-boot system.
2. Login in as an Administrator (Admin)
2. Right click on my computer(even works in start menu)
3. Click manage
4. Click Local Users and Groups
5. Click Users
6. Select "Dan Lewis" and hit the Delete Key
7. Select yes ...
There ya go. I just did it on mine here made an admin acct and deleted it.

If it don't work then your not logged in to the right account or maybe you need to update your XP.
 
Are you absolutely sure you are logged in as Administrator? As far as I know, once you create additional user accounts, the inbuilt Administrator account is by default only available when you boot into safe mode.

So if you type net user and press enter, the list that appears shows: Administrator, Dan Lewis, Guest, Support User_xxxx, Help Assistent?
If you are sure that Dan Lewis is the account you want to delete, set the name between quotes:

net user "Dan Lewis" /delete

The command will leave the "Dan Lewis" folder there in Documents and Settings. So basically the same effect as the method by deleting the account from Computer Management, described above.
 
This all sound reminiscent of a situation that (junior systems administrators) used to provide their senior managers with. I can remember to this day the sweat building on my brow when I tried to delete a simple user account in a previous version of windows. The problem (which is now well known) was this: -

User account was created with symbols that don’t display; you know the ones where you type in “John Smith” as the user name and no matter how hard you try it just won’t let you log on. This is because in between the letters “John” and “Smith” or at the end someone has typed in (legal) but not displayable symbols using the old (if I remember correctly keystrokes like ALT 257 or similar) to generate the hidden characters. This can be a nightmare to debug. Mind you I have never come across it in XP as of yet.
It might be that you generated one of these characters by mistake. I dammed if I can remember the solution to this problem but there is one. The solution has been posted on this site before but a long time ago.

The >.NET interface has recently been updated; make sure you have the latest version.


:) :) :) :)
 

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