Admin locked out

Question

I have new Surface laptop - after setting up windows and MS 365, I am not the admin. How do I change this?

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moved from Surface | Surface Laptop | Install and update

Answer 1

Hello Neil Santos,

Thanks for reaching out. A few quick questions to narrow this down, since the cause depends heavily on how the device was set up:

• Is this Surface a personal device you bought yourself, or was it provided by an employer / school / organization?
• During the initial Windows setup, did you sign in with a personal Microsoft account (e.g., outlook.com / hotmail.com) or a work or school account (e.g., ******@company.com)?
• On the sign-in screen, do you see only your account, or are there other accounts listed?

The reason this matters:

• If you signed in with a work or school account, Windows may have automatically enrolled the device into that organization’s tenant, which can place your account as a Standard user by design. In that case, the organization controls admin rights, and only their IT can change it.
• If this is a personal device and you used a personal Microsoft account, then there should be a local admin account somewhere — possibly a hidden one created during setup. In that case, we can usually recover or reconfigure admin rights without resetting.

If you can confirm the above, I can guide you to the exact next step. A screenshot of Settings > Accounts > Your info would also help confirm the account type quickly.

Answer 2

On a Surface (or any Windows PC), local administrator rights are controlled by Windows, not Microsoft 365. If the account used during initial setup is not an administrator, admin rights must be granted by someone who already has admin rights on that device.

To change who is an administrator, an existing local admin must:

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Go to User Accounts > Change your account type.
3. Select the account that should be an admin.
4. Choose Administrator and apply the change.

If Administrator cannot be selected for the account, or there is no access to any admin account on the device, contact the person or organization that set up or manages the Surface (for example, work/school IT, business owner, or whoever provided the device). They control admin access and may need to sign in with their admin account to change the account type.

If the device is managed by an organization and the admin password or admin contact is unknown, follow the guidance to find the administrator for the work or school account and work with them to adjust permissions.

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References:

• Check if you have local admin rights to install Office
• Find the administrator for your work or school account
• Set up your Surface