IT Resource

Many people have asked me where on earth the Administrator account has gone in Windows Vista. Quite simply, it hasn’t gone anywhere, it still exists however, Microsoft made a very smart move as far as I’m concerned and disabled the Administrator account by default.

To be quite honest, the average home user and, dare I say, ‘power user’ shouldn’t need to enable this account for any reason what so ever. Those individuals who have already enabled the Administrator account and more importantly those who work exclusively with it are just asking for trouble and clearly have no idea about general system security.

If you have a genuine reason for enabling and working out of the administrator account, then please excuse my comment above as it doesn’t apply to you.

Enabling the Administrator Account

All warnings aside, if you still feel like being a cowboy, then here’s how you can enable and log in under the Administrator account.

First you’ll need to open a command prompt in administrator mode by right-clicking and choosing “Run as administrator” (or use the Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcut from the search box in the Start menu).

Now type the following command:

You should see a message that the command completed successfully. Log out of Windows, and you’ll now see that you have a choice to log into the Administrator account.

There will be no password for this account.  Once you are logged in as the Administrator, I strongly advise that you set one.

Disable the Administrator Account

Make sure you are logged in under your regular user account, and then open the command prompt in administrator mode (as above). Type the following command:

The administrator account will now be disabled, and shouldn’t show up on the login screen any more.

Activation is required in all versions of Windows Vista. After you install Windows Vista, you have 30 days to activate it online or by telephone. If the 30-day activation period expires before you complete the activation, Windows Vista does not work as expected. You cannot create new files, and you cannot save changes to existing files. You regain full use of Windows Vista when you activate it.

To activate Windows Vista online, you must have an Internet connection. To activate Windows Vista by telephone, you must use an automated telephone system.

To activate Windows Vista, follow these steps:
1. Click the Start button, and then click Computer.
2. On the toolbar, click System properties, and then click Activate Windows now in the Windows activation area.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.

3. Select the Windows Vista activation method that you want, and then follow the instructions.

Note: If you select the automatic activation method when you set up the computer, the automatic activation process tries to activate your copy of Windows Vista three days after you first log on.

To verify the Windows Vista activation status, follow these steps:
1. Click the Start button, and then click Computer.
2. Click System properties on the toolbar, and view the Windows Vista activation status in the Windows activation area.

Windows Vista should now be activated.

There is a really neat way that you can quite easily find all active/used IP Addresses on your network without the need for any third party applications or worse, pinging each IP Address individually.

Open the Command Prompt and type in the following:

Change 192.168.10 to match you own network.

By using -n 1 you are asking for only 1 packet to be sent to each computer instead of the usual 4 packets.

The above command will ping all IP Addresses on the 192.168.10.0 network and create a text document in the C:\ drive called ipaddresses.txt.  This text document should only contain IP Addresses that replied to the ping request.

Although it will take quite a bit longer to complete, you can also resolve the IP Addresses to HOST names by simply adding -a to the ping command.

GUI Based Discovery

If you’re not confident using the command prompt, there are alternative GUI based applications that you can use.

TCPNetView – No installation is required, simply double-click the executable and away it goes.  It will find all active IP Addresses on the subnet you are currently connected too.
- Download Here

Advanced IP Scanner – If you are after something with a few more options and features, Advanced IP Scanner is an excellent free utility.
- More Information Here