Win XP - no Admin account?

I was given an old Dell for free, on the condition I wipe out the owners account & data. Unfortunately the only account is a "limited" account - even booting into Safe Mode, I do not get a login for Administrator.

I found a few tricks online, including adding a value to the registry(there's no Admin account shown there), and using the command prompt to enable it, but I get "access denied" both times.

I have the XP product key on the tower, but no disk, so nuke & pave isn't an option.

If you have the key, ask around your friends for a copy of a Windows XP CD. Pretty much any media will do - the important thing is the good product key on the tower. That will make nuke and start over an option - and it really is the best one.

Alternatively, there's always Ubuntu.

There should be an admin account that you can log into with a couple key strokes on log-in, but that will not appear as an icon on the login screen. Of course, you'd need to know the correct password.

If reinstalling, be sure to get the correct type of disk whether it's XP-Pro or XP-Home. The two are not interchangeable.

Or just go on Craigslist and buy someone's used copy. They can be had for like $20-$30 these days.

Last machine I had that kind of issue with, I leveled it with a USB boot drive and linux.

worked for me :D

I have a pile of Dell XP sp3 disks. You are more than welcome to one for the price of shipping.

These are the Dell OEM disks that ship with new machines. We use a standard image at work and usually just toss the disks but I try to keep a few on hand for this very reason.

As long as the machine is a dell machine it will work and you will not have to put in the Key.

Do you have a Home or Professional COA (certificate of authenticity)? That matters when sourcing a disc. You also need to make sure that the disc is OEM and not retail. Ideally, you would find a Dell OEM disc for whatever version (home or pro) that you need.

I've actually used a retail disc with an OEM key. I don't think Microsoft cares much about anti-piracy of XP anymore...

Here