How to enable System Recovery Account in Vista and Windows 7?

Question

I know that Vista has a built in System Recovery Account. How can I enable it? Does Windows 7 has this account too?

Answer 1

There isn't a "System Recover Account", but there is a hidden administrator account (by default). This is also available in Windows 7.

We may be able to provide a better answer if you can tell us why you need this.

Accessing the administrator account:

The fastest way to activate the account is from an elevated instance of cmd, by using the command net user administrator /active:yes.

You should also be able to enable the account from the Computer Management screen, but you cannot do so from the friendly Control Panel users screen.

If you happen to have (somehow) deleted or disabled all other admin accounts on your system then I believe that the administrator account should automatically activate when entering safe mode (and only for safe mode), from which you can re-enable other accounts.