Windows 8 In Depth

Making Sure the Administrator Account Is Disabled

One of the confusing aspects about Windows 8 is that the Administrator account seems to disappear after the setup is complete. That’s because, for security reasons, Windows 8 doesn’t give you access to this all-powerful account. However, there are ways to activate this account, so it pays to take a second and make sure it’s still in its disabled state.

You can so this in several ways, but here’s a quick look at two of them:

• Using the Local Security Policy Editor—In the Start screen, type secpol.msc, and then click secpol. In the Local Security Policy window, open the Local Policies, Security Options branch, and then double-click the Accounts: Administrator Account Status policy. Click Disabled, ...