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Passwordless Administrator Account

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 4:33 pm
by kenrlaird
I'm setting up new clerk computers, following the procedure in the "Setting Up a New Clerk Computer" document. I setup the Clerk account, per that document. We recently discovered that the "Administrator" account on these new Dell computers does not have a password set. Should I be disabling that account or adding a password to prevent accidental use?

Re: Passwordless Administrator Account

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 5:21 pm
by russellhltn
Just to be clear, are you able to log into the Administrator account without a password? The reason I ask is that Win7 seems a little quirky and tends to reserve "Administrator" for it's own process.

Re: Passwordless Administrator Account

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 8:22 pm
by lajackson
kenrlaird wrote:I'm setting up new clerk computers, following the procedure in the "Setting Up a New Clerk Computer" document. I setup the Clerk account, per that document. We recently discovered that the "Administrator" account on these new Dell computers does not have a password set. Should I be disabling that account or adding a password to prevent accidental use?
I have not seen any specific instructions on this. Our STS sets a simple password and keeps a record of it so someone will not go wandering around on the computer, and in case something happens to the main account used by the Clerk.

Re: Passwordless Administrator Account

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 9:04 pm
by Mikerowaved
kenrlaird wrote:Should I be disabling that account or adding a password to prevent accidental use?
The Administrator account in Windows 7 defaults to being disabled and hidden. Is it possible that someone there might have changed the status to active?

To disable the account (recommended), open a CMD window with Admin privileges and type the following:

net user administrator /active:no

Re: Passwordless Administrator Account

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 11:53 am
by kenrlaird
The Administrator account really doesn't have a password.
No, it has not been automatically disabled. It shows up on every one of the 7 new computers I have installed when I reboot at the end of the Sophos install.
Thanks for the command. I will disable the Administrator account on these machines as I get the opportunity.