Loss of WindowsXP Admin rights

[swhymark]

Hi,

 

I don't know if anyone could help me out with this.

Over the Summer I updated my XP images. I've just been to add a scanner to one of the reimaged Student machines, and it appears that the Local Administrator rights have been removed. I get the standard message when I try to access the Device Manager, Task Manager is greyed out, and the scanner driver install fails.

To make it more confusing, it only appears to be on specific (newer) models, not all systems.

The only time I've known something like this is through a virus or rootkit or something.

I have scanned everything, driverpacks etc, and wondering if it is either a Windows Update, Sysprep, or a device driver or something.

 

Does anyone know how to restore the Local Admin privileges as a quick workaround?

 

Thanks

[Azhibberd]

for just a quick printer install, how about just logging in locally with the local administrator account?

[swhymark]

That's the one with the problem. I have a seperate account also in the Local Administrator group which is experiencing the same problem.

[mac_shinobi]

Log in as a domain administrator on said computer and create a local user account and assign them with local admin rights or from another computer that you are logged in as a domain admin you should be able to connect to the problematic computer using computer management console ( compmgmt.msc )

 

Right click on the computer item at the top and select connect to other computer , paste or enter in said hostname or ip address of problematic computer and it will connect to the computer management console of the remote computer and you should be able to add in either a new local admin account or update an existing local user account on the remote computer and add them to the administrators group

 

The other way is to use a script that adds specific user account(s) to the administrators group

 

something like so

 

Script to add domain user account to local Administrators group - www.enterpriseitplanet.com

 

Number of ways to achieve the same thing.

[swhymark]

Thanks Mac. I have actually logged in as a Domain Administrator and that didn't work either. I will try the other options and report back.

[mac_shinobi]

Thanks Mac. I have actually logged in as a Domain Administrator and that didn't work either. I will try the other options and report back.

 

Might not work due to being on a domain but worth a shot - if you reboot said computer into safe mode can you not logon as an admin user without any password ie no password set / blank password ??

 

Also are there any other admin user accounts on the said computer you could logon with at all ?

 

I think there is a group policy setting ( not sure ) that should allow you to force and create a local admin account on all computers in a specific OU - you would have to check that or unless someone else can confirm??

[swhymark]

OK I logged in as the Domain Admin of the Domain the PC was in, managed to create a local account, gave admin privs, and still the same error message. I was able to install the driver tho as this Domain Admin, which was my quick fix. (Task Manager was still greyed out tho so something is not quite right).

 

Thanks to all, don't know if I will get the time to get to the cause of this problem, but will drop back if I do.

[mac_shinobi]

OK I logged in as the Domain Admin of the Domain the PC was in, managed to create a local account, gave admin privs, and still the same error message. I was able to install the driver tho as this Domain Admin, which was my quick fix. (Task Manager was still greyed out tho so something is not quite right).

 

Thanks to all, don't know if I will get the time to get to the cause of this problem, but will drop back if I do.

 

After making changes through the computer management console ( compmgmt.msc ) I had to log off and back in or reboot the computer and admin privs took effect so not sure if thats the issue

 

With regards to task manager that might be group policy settings ?

 

seems you got it sorted anyway