administrator password

[ua549]

That's most likely the reason for your net start command failure.

From a cmd window enter net start. You'll get a list of running services.
Then pick a service to play with and enter net stop <service name>
followed by a net start <service name>.

You don't need to use "the" administrator account as long as your own account has admin privileges.

[IcSilk]

lol, yeah ok. I just messed with it and you're right.

Thats another example of me trying to be cleverer than the situation calls for

Im in the midst of writing a batch to automate it right now anyways, soo ........ problem solved.

(Until Im back here because I messed up the .bat file somehow, lol

Thanks

[nihil]

Though I finally figured it out I still don't understand why the /u:administrator switch didn't work since I am the administrator.

If anyone who can explain this and who doesn't mind keeping this thread open long enough to do so would, I would be really appreciative.

Please accept this as an educated guess rather than a definitive technical explanation, but I believe that foxy~ has it right.

I haven't really played with Windows 7 that much, but Windows creates a default administrator account of its own when you install it. In addition the first user account that you create is defaulted to be a member of the administrators group.

AFAIK, the default administrator account only shows up when you log in into safe mode, and the default password is blank. I have seen the default account use the same password as the original user, but I am not sure if that was Windows or the user altering it afterwards.

The bottom line is that I believe that the default admin account is only available in safe mode, which would be why your first command failed?

If anyone knows better, please enlighten us.

[IcSilk]

The bottom line is that I believe that the default admin account is only available in safe mode, which would be why your first command failed?

You know - I never even thought of that, but I think you're right. when i get some time quick, I'll check it out and let you know

[ua549]

The command failed because it was attempting to start a nonexistent service.

The default Administrator account is visible and can be managed as part of normal Windows 7 operations via Computer Management, Local Users and Groups. It has the same privileges as any other account in the Administrators group. After installing the OS the next thing I do is disable the Administrator account and Guest account. I am discussing a non-domain environment. In a Windows domain things get more complicated because there are separate local and domain sets of users, groups and privileges interacting with each other.