user accounts

[kapmep]

Hello,

Several weeks ago I was forced to do a Windows XP Home,(repair) reinstall. This was done according to Microsoft instructions. When It reinstalled my name was changed to "owner". The computer booted ok and I've had no real problems so I forgot about it. I did look to see if there were any other "user accounts" listed, but "owner was the only one set up. It said full administrator priviledges so I assumed that was the same as "administrator" which I was before reinstalling.
Anyway I've been trying to install a new software program and it installs fine but will not open. After reinstalling it several times I called support. They told me to boot into "safe" mode and check the users. In safe mode both Administrator and Owner were listed. He told me that the program was installed under the administrator. I tried to change owner to administrator but couldn't in safe mode. In normal windows administrator is not listed. Is there anyway to make the "owner" become the "administrator" without reinstalling windows again? I am the only person on this PC and don't care what name it wants to call itself as long as I can control everything. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Kent:confused:

[BipolarBill]

Once an account is "retired", it can't be recovered. You could rename the "owner" account to Administrator and it wouldn't make a difference.

When you install an application in an NT-based OS, it sometimes asks if you want the application to be available to all users or just the administrator/installer. If you selected the latter, you're locked out. This option is not made available to someone in the User class. Indeed, a User could not even install such an application. These are usually utilities such as Partition Magic and Norton Utiities.

WinXP Home only has two types of accounts - Admin and User. "Owner" is admin.

What you can try to do is reinstall the application to another directory and use it as a separate instance.

[kapmep]

Thanks for the assistance. I've decided to format and reinstall xp again. A big time consumer but not too bad since I have 2 drives. I put all my favorite programs in the other drive so I can reinstall fairly fast. At any rate everything should be back to normal after that.
Thanks again
Kent

[Ammok]

Welcome to SysOpts, Kent, and don't forget your password!!!!:D