Enable the Built-in Administrator in Windows 10/11 via Windows RE

There are situations where you’ll need to activate and use the built-in Administrator account in Windows. The built-in Administrator account is disabled by default. If your existing admin user account profile gets corrupted (and you have no alternate user account with admin privileges), you’ll need to enable and use the built-in administrator account to fix things up or create a second administrator account.

This article tells you how to enable the built-in administrator account (named “Administrator“) in Windows 10 and 11.

Enable Built-in Administrator via Recovery Options

Enabling the built-in administrator (“Administrator”) account can be done through Windows Recovery Environment (aka “Recovery Options”) if you cannot log in to your user account.

Step 1: Log in to Advanced Recovery Options (Windows RE)

1. From the sign-in screen in Windows 10/11, press and hold the SHIFT key on the keyboard.
2. With the SHIFT key still pressed, click the Power button and then click Restart.
3. In the Recovery Options menu, click Troubleshoot, and then click Advanced Options.
   
   

Step 2: Enable the Built-in Administrator account from Windows RE

1. In the Windows Recovery Options menu, click Troubleshoot → Advanced Options.
   
   
2. Click Command Prompt.
   
   (This opens a Command Prompt window. We need to edit the SAM registry hive offline to enable the built-in Administrator account.)
3. In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and press ENTER:

   regedit.exe

4. In the Registry Editor, select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
5. From the File menu, click Load Hive…
   
6. In the browse dialog, locate and select the \Windows\System32\Config\SAM hive file from your Windows installation — e.g., assuming C:\ is your Windows drive letter. This SAM hive contains the user accounts information.
   See the section about finding the drive letter of your Windows installation in this article.

   

7. Assign a name for the loaded hive — e.g., TEMPHIVE
   
8. Go to the following branch in the Registry Editor:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\TEMPHIVE\SAM\Domains\Account\Users\000001F4

9. Double-click the REG_BINARY value named F
10. In the 8th row, 1st column, modify the value 11 to 10
    The value of 11 denotes that the built-in Administrator account is disabled. Setting it to 10 enables the built-in Administrator.
    
11. Click OK to save the setting.
12. Select the TEMPHIVE key.
13. From the File menu, click Unload Hive…
    
14. Exit the Registry Editor.
15. Type Exit in the Command Prompt window.
16. In the Recovery Options window, click Continue (Exit and Continue to Windows.)
17. When you get to the Windows sign-in screen, you’ll see the built-in Administrator account.
    
18. Log in to the built-in Administrator. This account has a blank password by default.

Additional Notes

From the built-in “Administrator account, you can:

1. Carry out the administration tasks using this account — e.g., creating a new administrator account, fixing the registry or file system permissions, etc.
2. Once done, log off from the “Administrator” account and log in to your user account.
3. For security reasons, it’s better to disable the built-in administrator. To disable the built-in Administrator account, open an elevated Command Prompt window and type:

   net user administrator /active:no

   You can check the status of the “Administrator” account by running the command “net user administrator“. The “Account active” field tells if the account is active or not.

That’s it!