How to Provide Administrator Credentials in Windows

How to Provide Administrator Credentials in Windows

(When logged on with a non-Administrator Group account)

These instructions assume UNH IT CRS has set up this computer, and that the local ‘administrator’ account name has been changed to ‘Localadmin’, for security purposes.

Windows 7/Vista

On Windows 7/Vista computers, if the user tries to perform some action that requires administrator privileges, and is logged in with an account that does not have administrator privileges, Windows User Account Control (UAC) will prompt the user for administrator credentials.

If the user enters a username/password combination that does not have administrator privileges, or if the credentials are typed incorrectly, when the ‘Yes’ button is clicked, the dialogue box will flicker once and the text boxes will be cleared to allow the user to try again.

To specify the Localadmin account administrator credentials, type ' .\Localadmin ' in the 'User name:' box, with a period and back-slash in front of the name 'Localadmin'. The ‘ .\ ’ tells Windows that you want to log on to the local computer, and not an outside resource like the AD domain.

Confirm that the Domain: listed below the password box now says the name of the computer instead of AD. Type in the appropriate password and click 'Yes'.

The desired action should then proceed normally. The user may be required to provide administrator credentials to the User Account Control more than once, depending on the exact actions being taken.