Unhide the administrator account in Windows XP

In the 32-bit editions of Windows XP, there is a default built-in admin account named Administrator. But as soon as you setup another user account, this Administrator account gets hidden and not shown in User Accounts in Control Panel. Using the steps in this article you can unhide this account.

1. Open Start Menu → Run to open the Run dialog.
2. In the Run dialog, type regedit and press Enter to open the Windows Registry Editor.
3. Navigate to the following key in the Registry Editor :
   HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList

   

4. You would find a DWORD value named Administrator in the right-side pane. If it does not exist, right-click anywhere in the right-side pane and choose New → DWORD Value, name it Administrator and press Enter. Double click on the Administrator value in the right pane. An Edit Value box would pop up. Type 1 and press Enter.
5. That’s it. Now you can check this Administrator account listed in the Control Panel → User Accounts.

You can also download the Registry file unhide_admin.zip. Extract it in a folder, and double click on unhide_admin.reg.