Having an Admin problem. Appears I have two and the incorrect one will not allow software updates

Question

It appears I have two Admins on my system, [Moderator Note: Personal Info Removed] and [Moderator Note: Personal Info Removed]. [Moderator Note: Personal Info Removed] is the correct one but [Moderator Note: Personal Info Removed] is the one that appears when I try to install new software or do anything that requires Admin approval. How do I correct this situation?

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Moved from: System Center Service Manager

Answer 1

Hi John Jones,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum.Please note that our forum is a public platform, and we will modify your question to hide your personal information in the description. Kindly ensure that you hide any personal or organizational information the next time you post an error or other details to protect personal data.

I completely understand how confusing and frustrating this situation can be, especially when Windows appears to reference an administrator account that you can’t clearly see or manage.

From what you’ve described, the visible account setup now looks correct, so you’ve done the right things. What’s likely happening is that Windows 11 is still holding on to an old or legacy administrator reference in the background. While this can be confusing, it doesn’t suggest any issue with the system or your data.

The next thing I’d recommend is a quick check to see what Windows still considers an administrator internally:

• Open Command Prompt using Run as administrator
• Run the command:

    net localgroup administrators
  

This will show all entries Windows currently treats as administrators, including any hidden or leftover ones that don’t always appear in Settings or Control Panel.

If you see anything there that shouldn’t be listed anymore, it can be safely removed from the Administrators group. If everything looks correct but the prompt still doesn’t behave as expected, a restart after refreshing UAC settings usually clears out those cached references.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. I’m happy to help.

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Answer 2

To resolve the issue of having two admin accounts where the incorrect one is being used for software installations, you can follow these steps:

1. Check User Accounts: Go to the Control Panel and navigate to User Accounts. Verify which accounts are listed as administrators.
2. Change Account Type: If John is the incorrect admin account, you can change its account type to a standard user. This will prevent it from having admin privileges.
3. Set the Correct Admin: Ensure that John Jones is set as the administrator. If necessary, you can promote John Jones to an administrator account if it is not already.
4. Remove the Incorrect Admin: If you no longer need the John account, you can remove it from the system. Make sure to back up any important data associated with that account before deletion.
5. Restart Your Computer: After making these changes, restart your computer to ensure that the changes take effect.

If you continue to experience issues, you may need to check for any group policies or settings that might be enforcing the use of the incorrect admin account.

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References:

• Troubleshooting AGPM