Cannot do anything that requires admin privileges in Windows 10 (stuck)

Question

I have 2 accounts, one of them is just a normal Microsoft account that I log on to every day, the other one is administrator account I just hid with SpecialAccounts registry hack.

The problem is, what SpecialAccounts does is just disabling that account, and I have configured my UAC settings to highest possible, so if I do anything that changes system even slightly, I need to type administrator password. However, that I have actually disabled this administrator account, now nothing shows up on UAC warning/confirm screen, so I can't even revert back or anything.

Am I totally screwed? Or is there a way to do something to get out of this jail?

---

What I've tried:

• regedit requires admin prev.
• UAC setting requires admin prev.
• Cannot log into safe mode, you can only log in safe mode with an administrator account.
• Using advanced restart options to get command prompt and net user only shows Administrator account (seems temporary)

---

Edit: This question is not a duplicate of What can I do if I forgot my Windows password?, I know all my passwords and I can log on to my disabled admin account on advanced boot options. This question is however pretty much an exact duplicate of Locked out of Admin Account but it's different version of Windows so I wrote my own question.

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I have not tested this, but I recently used something similar to get out of a similar UAC-prompt-borked situation.

From a different machine on the same network:

1. Download PsExec
2. Run: PsExec -s -i \\(borked-machine-name) -u .\administrator -p (password) regedit.exe
3. This should pop up a regedit window on the borked machine's desktop, with which you can undo your registry hack.

Or, to do it all remotely: PsExec -s -i \\(borked-machine-name) -u .\administrator -p (password) reg.exe delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts" /va /f

Either way, you'll probably need to logoff/logon for this to take effect.

Answer 2

Do Steps 1 & 2 here: https://4sysops.com/archives/reset-a-windows-10-password/ Then start Regedit.exe in the Command Prompt window, and select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

From the File menu, click Load Hive and select the "SOFTWARE" hive of your Windows installation (windows\system32\config), and delete the SpecialAccounts key. Unload the hive.

Exit Setup and restart Windows normally.