Log into hidden administrator account with standard user

Question

I created an administrator user account (jeff) and then downgraded an existing account (jen) to a standard user. All was good I accomplished my goal except I didn't want the admin account to show on the login screen. So I used regedit to edit the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList

Everything was still fine until I tried to log in to the admin user and realized CTRL-ALT-DEL no longer shows the alternate login screen (Windows Vista). Now I have a standard user account with no way to log into the admin account. Can someone point me to a solution?

I did try using runas to use regedit as an admin:

runas /user:jeff c:\windows\regedit.exe

I also tried run cmd.exe as an admin

runas /user:jeff c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe

I lastly tried the following command both with and without using runas:

net user jeff /active:yes

Answer 1

The following instructions came from this site and are duplicated here in case this site goes offline.

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If you would like to unhide the hidden Administrator account on Windows 7 Operating System, here's how you can do it:

1. Boot Win 7 DVD, go to command prompt and type regedit -it, open registry editor

2. Click on HKLM hive and next navigate File>>Load hive. Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\config folder and choose SOFTWARE file load it and assign this hive any name for example REM_SOFTWARE

3. Open key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REM_SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
   and remove this account or better way remove the whole key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\REM_SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts