How to Change the Administrator on Windows 11

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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.

  1. 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 Settings
    Open the Settings app.

  2. On the left panel, click on Accounts. In the Accounts section, select Family & other users.

    Click Family and other users
    Under the Accounts section, select Family & other users.

  3. 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 user
    Select the user you want to make the administrator.

  4. Now, click on Change account type.

    Click on change account type
    Choose Change account type.

  5. A “Change account type” dialog box will appear on your screen. Click on the down arrow icon next to Standard User.
    Choose account type
    Pick the account type in the drop-down field to change account type.
  6. Choose Administrator and click on OK.

    Choose Administrator
    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.

  1. Press the Windows key and search for “control panel”. Select the Control Panel app.
    Launch Control Panel
    Open the Control Panel app.
  2. Once you open the Control Panel app, click on Change account type under “User Accounts”.

    Change the account type
    Click Change account type under User Accounts.

  3. When you see the list of users available on your device, select the user you’d like to promote to administrator.

    Choose user
    Pick the user you want to make the administrator from the list of users.

  4. Now, select Change the account type.

    Click on Change the account type
    Click on Change the account type.

  5. Choose Administrator and select Change Account Type.

    Choose administrator
    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:

  1. Press Windows + R to open the “Run” command. When you see the Run dialog box, type “netplwiz” and click on OK.

    Run netplwiz
    Open the Run command and type netplwiz.

  2. 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.

    Select Users and Click on Properties
    Choose Properties under the Users tab.

  3. Go to the Group Membership tab. Select Administrator and click on Apply. Then select OK.

    Choose Administrator and click 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.

  1. 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.

    Launch Command Prompt
    Run the Command Prompt app as administrator.

  2. 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.”

    Command for admin access
    Type the command and press Enter to change the administrator.

  3. 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.”

    Command for revoking admin access
    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:

  1. Press the Windows key and search for “powershell”. Click on Run as Administrator.

    Launch Windows PowerShell
    Run the Windows PowerShell app as administrator on your device.

  2. 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.

    Giving admin access
    Type the code and hit Enter to give admin access.

  3. 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.

    Removing admin access
    Type the code to remove admin access.

Erik is a full-time product quality engineer at the IBM who has a passion for teaching others (and always learning) about technology. He has a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology. Erik is the chief editor for Windows, Linux and coding tutorials.

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