Windows Vista Locked Out... Of Everything

[thecandide]

Unable to do Anything
The Admin account is no longer an Administrator

While setting up a computer for a lab, I have become completely unable to change anything requiring an administrator password. I loaded the computer on a domain called "students" and I am logged on using the local account I created when I first went through the setup process, named "Admin". The account I am using is listed a debugger user, and there are no other local accounts.

I am unable to change anything with the windows security logo next to it. When I type in the local account and password it gives me "The requested operation requires elevation" error. My network administrator receives the same message.

Device Manager:
"You do not have sufficient privileges to uninstall devices or change device properties or device drivers. Please contact your site administrator, or log out and log in again as administrator and try again."

Since it no longer recognizes the only local account I have as an administrator account there is no way for me to install or change anything.... Please help me regain the ability to change settings in the control panel.

 

[Jonnie32]

> So... You guessed it I locked Myself out of the computer by the policy "Deny
> logon locally = Administrator". I have access to another computer that has XP
> on it. I can take the hard drive from the one that has the problem and
> install it into the one that has XP on it.

Warning: This isn't a Microsoft-approved procedure so it may have undesirable
side-effects I'm not aware of. I've not had any trouble, however.

First make a backup copy of the contents of \windows\system32\config from the
damaged system.

Run regedit, click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and then select Load Hive from the File
Menu. Select the file named "system" from the folder \windows\system32\config on
the damaged system. Name the key xxx (or whatever, doesn't matter really).

Open the xxx key, then the Setup key inside it. Change SetupType to 2. Change
CmdLine to cmd.exe. Shut down, return the hard drive to the original system and
boot up. You should get a command window (in SYSTEM context). You can then run
gpedit.msc to correct the broken policy.