Logging on to Windows XP as an Administrator

On a stand-alone Windows XP computer that’s part of a workgroup you don’t have the option to logon as an Administrator at the Welcome screen. This behavior is different for computers that have joined a domain. In a domain environment you get a security dialog box where you can press CTRL-ALT-DEL and then logon either to any local account in the local SAM database (including Administrator), or to a domain account in the Active Directory database.

In a workgroup environment, you can have two types of accounts: Computer Administrator and Limited. If all your accounts are Limited accounts then you cannot perform administrative tasks because the Welcome screen in a workgroup environment only shows the accounts that you’ve created. It doesn’t show an icon for the built-in Administrator account and there’s no other option where you can type in accounts that are not listed on the screen, such as the Administrator. By the way, you can manage this built-in Administrator account in Computer Management but not in User Accounts in Control Panel.

Here’s the trick. In a workgroup environment you can press CTRL-ALT-DEL twice to bring up the “Log On to Windows” box and then logon as local Administrator.