A Windows 11 administrator account has many privileges and more control than the standard user account. For example, an administrator account can adjust the settings of other user accounts, download and install software for all accounts, and has access to all files on the device.
When you create a new account in Windows 11, it will be created as a standard account by default. If you want administrator privileges, you need to change the standard account to an administrator account. There are several ways to do this.
Only users with administrative privileges may modify the account type of other users. You can’t change to an administrator account from a standard account – you must be logged in to an administrator account.
Change administrator using Settings
Here’s how you can change a standard account to an administrator account using the Settings app.
- Press the Windows key and search for “Settings.” Next, click on Open to launch the Windows 11 settings app. Alternatively, you can launch settings using the keyboard shortcut Windows + I.
Open the Settings app. - On the left panel, click on Accounts. In the Accounts section, select Family & other users.
Under the Accounts section, select Family & other users. - Under the Other users section, you can see the list of users available. Click on the down arrow icon next to the user you want to make the administrator.
Select the user you want to make the administrator. - Now, click on Change account type.
Choose Change account type. - A “Change account type” dialog box will appear on your screen. Click on the down arrow icon next to Standard User.
Pick the account type in the drop-down field to change account type. - Choose Administrator and click on OK.
Select Administrator as the account type and press OK.
Change administrator using Control Panel
Use the steps below to change a standard user account to an administrator account using Control Panel.
- Press the Windows key and search for “control panel”. Select the Control Panel app.
Open the Control Panel app. - Once you open the Control Panel app, click on Change account type under “User Accounts”.
Click Change account type under User Accounts. - When you see the list of users available on your device, select the user you’d like to promote to administrator.
Pick the user you want to make the administrator from the list of users. - Now, select Change the account type.
Click on Change the account type. - Choose Administrator and select Change Account Type.
Select Administrator and click on Change Account Type.
Change administrator using User Accounts
You can also change to an administrator account using the User Accounts settings. Here’s how you can do that:
- Press Windows + R to open the “Run” command. When you see the Run dialog box, type “netplwiz” and click on OK.
Open the Run command and type netplwiz. - Under the Users tab, you will see a list of users on your device. Click on the user that you want to change to administrator. Then select Properties.
Choose Properties under the Users tab. - Go to the Group Membership tab. Select Administrator and click on Apply. Then select OK.
Select Administrator under the Group Membership tab.
Change administrator using Command Prompt
Using the command prompt, you can use the following steps to convert a standard account on Windows 11 to an administrator account.
- On the start menu, search for “cmd” and select Run as administrator on the Command Prompt app. If you get a User Account Control prompt, click on “OK” to permit command prompt to run as administrator.
Run the Command Prompt app as administrator. - Type:
"net localgroup Administrators “USER_NAME” /add."Replace “USER_NAME” with the user’s name you want to change as administrator. Press Enter after typing the command. After it has been successfully changed to administrator, you will see the following confirmation message: “The command completed successfully.”
Type the command and press Enter to change the administrator. - If you want to revoke access and remove the administrator, type:
"net localgroup Administrators “USER_NAME” /delete."Press Enter. Like the previous command, replace “USER_NAME” with the standard account’s name that you’d like to change back to a standard account. After it’s done, you will see the following confirmation message: “The command completed successfully.”
Type the command and press Enter to revoke admin access.
Change administrator using Windows Terminal or PowerShell
You can also use PowerShell to switch to an administrator account. Here’s how to do that:
- Press the Windows key and search for “powershell”. Click on Run as Administrator.
Run the Windows PowerShell app as administrator on your device. - In PowerShell, write the following command:
Add-LocalGroupMember -Group “Administrators” -Member “USER_NAME”Replace “USER_NAME” with the name of the user to be changed to administrator. Press Enter to run the command.
Note: No confirmation message will be displayed.
Type the code and hit Enter to give admin access. - To remove a user as an administrator, you can revoke their access by typing in:
Remove-LocalGroupMember -Group “Administrators” -Member “USER_NAME”Replace “USER_NAME” in the command with the administrator user account’s name.
Type the code to remove admin access.