Windows Vista™ Inside Out

What Happened to the Administrator Account?

Every computer running Windows Vista has a special account named Administrator. Traditionally in Windows, Administrator has been the primary account for managing the computer. Like other administrator accounts, the Administrator account has full rights over the entire computer. There’s one key difference in Windows Vista: the Administrator account is disabled by default.

Note

Upon installation of Windows Vista, the Administrator account is disabled, with one exception: If you upgrade from Windows XP and Administrator is the only active local administrator account, then Administrator remains enabled. In that situation, it is placed in Admin Approval Mode for purposes of User Access Control (UAC).

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