Accounts: Administrator account status
Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2
Accounts: Administrator account status
Description
This security setting determines whether the local Administrator account is enabled or disabled.
Notes
If you try to reenable the Administrator account after it has been disabled, and if the current Administrator password does not meet the password requirements, you cannot reenable the account. In this case, an alternative member of the Administrators group must reset the password on the Administrator account. For information about how to reset a password, see Reset a password.
Disabling the Administrator account can become a maintenance issue under certain circumstances. For example, in a domain environment, if the secure channel that constitutes your join fails for any reason, and there is no other local Administrator account, you must restart in Safe Mode to fix the problem that is causing your join status to be broken.
Under Safe Mode boot, the Administrator account is always enabled, regardless of this setting.
Default: Enabled.
Configuring this security setting
You can configure this security setting by opening the appropriate policy and expanding the console tree as such: Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\
For specific instructions about how to configure security policy settings, see Edit security settings on a Group Policy object.
For more information, see: