Administrator help on laptop

Question

Hi, I somehow made myself a non-administrator on my HP ENVY laptop 16-h1xxx. I can't access any major settings, etc. I am trying to make myself an administrator again and I can't do it. I've already tried a couple things, but everything I tried when a administrator confirmation small box comes on screen, I can not click 'yes' beceause it doesn't show, it only shows 'no' as option. Please help, thank you.

Answer 1

On this computer, it doesn't have an admin at all, or it has an admin, but you don't know the password?

If it doesn't have admin at all, there's a way to recover admin access.

Hold down Shift key while you choose Windows restart, then go to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup Settings, click on restart, then choose option 4.

When prompted for password, leave it blank and enter.

When you are in safe mode, hold down windows + r keys, type in netplwiz and press enter.

Then double click on your username, go to Group Membership tab, make it admin.

Restart, log back into your user. You should now have admin access.

Answer 2

Because the current account is no longer an administrator, any action that requires elevation (the “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?” box) will only show “No” and not allow changes. To regain admin rights, an account with administrator permissions must be used, or the built‑in Administrator account must be enabled first and then used to promote the normal account.

From the available information, the supported way to make a user an administrator again (once an admin account is available) is:

1. Sign in with an account that has administrator rights.
2. Open Settings > Accounts > Other users.
3. Under Other users, select the account that needs admin rights.
4. Select Change account type.
5. In the dropdown, change the account type to Administrator, then select OK.

If no administrator account is available or accessible, the documented approach is to enable an existing administrator account (for example, the built‑in Administrator) and then sign in with it to fix the permissions. On a system where the built‑in Administrator is disabled but still present, it can be re‑enabled from Computer Management when another admin account is available:

1. Open Computer Management.
2. Go to Local Users and Groups > Users.
3. Double‑click Administrator.
4. Clear Account is disabled, then select Apply.
5. Sign out and sign in with the Administrator account.

Once signed in with an administrator account, the standard account can be changed back to administrator using the steps in Settings above.

If there is truly no way to sign in with any administrator account (no local admin, no Microsoft account with admin rights, and no way to enable the built‑in Administrator), the remaining supported option in the provided material is to reset or reinstall Windows from a state where an administrator account exists, then reconfigure accounts. This is consistent with scenarios where users could not elevate to install apps and ultimately resolved the issue by reinstalling the operating system.

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References:

• Manage User Accounts in Windows
• Enable and disable the built-in administrator account
• Find lost files after upgrading Windows
• AppInstall - Microsoft Q&A