Cannot change admin user to standard user (2 Admin Accounts)

I have an issue that I would like some help with. When I purchased my iMac a few years ago, I created one user account and just started using my computer. I am trying to implement a few Safe Computing practices by creating a new Admin user account and changing my original user account to a Standard user.
For some reason, I cannot change either of the accounts to a standard user after I type in the password. I've logged in as both and tried to change the other user profile to a standard user, but the checkbox is greyed out on both of the Admin User accounts.
I can create a new standard user, but I have everyting set the way I like it on my current Admin user account. It would be much easier to have a new Admin User account and "Downgrade" my original Admin account to a standard user account.
Any thoughts on why the option to change from an Admin user to a standard user would be "Greyed Out"? The support articles walk me through, what should be a few simple steps, but I can not change the settings because the checkbox is greyed out.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts, suggestions, ideas....

In a way it makes sense that the original Admin Account can;t be changed. If a user changed that account to non-admin and that was the only admin account it would be a mess to undo it. I agree that there should be some indication of this and even the ability to over rider it in a case like yours.
As there isn't the next best thing will be for you to duplicate the current admin account as a new user account and then use that duplicated account.
See How to copy a user account for instructions on how to duplicate an account.
post back if you have any questions.
regards

Similar Messages

Can't change home directory for standard users (admin is OK)

I'm can't relocate home directories for standard users. Relocating works fine for admin users.
When a standard user logs in, they get a message (paraphased) saying "the home directory is not available. If it is located on a server, the server might not be online". If I change the standard user to admin, this message goes away, and everything is fine.
I created a standard user
moved the home directory using the terminal as root: mv UserName /otherlocation/UserName
I then went into users and groups, other options and changed the home directory location.
Rebooted, then tried to log in as the standard users.
Next try - Deleted the standard user and created the same user with admin rights. Followed the above steps and everything works fine.
I don't want this user to have admin rights on my system. Any ideas

Hi,
the AFP is has always been switched on. As for the path I believe this to be correct. The path I am using is:
afp://musicserver/Users
I'm not at the server right now so I mat have got the afp and : and / in the wrong order here but they are correct on the server.
This however does not seem to put the a folder in the Users folder. Could it be something to do with my external hard drive? I am using a Mac Mini as our server (not ideal but fine for us, or at least was) this is booted from our external hard drive. This is the main system drive which is where the Users data is also stored. I have tried all possible paths I can thing of from replacing the 'musicserver' with the IP address. I have also tried adding the name of the drive to the path (System) but all does not work.
Are you able to suggest anything I have missed? Perhaps I'm doing the path wrong?
Thanks again
Chris

Vista and iTunes shared library - Admin vs. Standard User

Here's a good one.....I am the administrator of the family's Vista desktop computer, my kids are Standard Users. When I log in to the computer and bring up iTunes, I am able to see and access our shared library of music on our Synology DS207+ NAS. When either of my kids log in and bring up iTunes, the DiskStation appears on the left side underneath 'shared' but when they click on it, they are not able to access the music. A dialog box appears with the following message: 'the shared library "Disk Station" is not responding (-39). Check that any firewall software running on either the shared computer or this computer has been set to allow communication on port 3689.'
Their Standard User accounts can access the music on the NAS through mapped drives and windows explorer.
I am running CA (Computer Associates) Security Center and the firewall has the same rules in place for all of our logins. Here is the strange thing, when I change their account type from Standard User to Administrator, they are able to access the shared library of music, no more dialog box with that message. I change their account type back to Standard User and again, they are not able to access the music, and they get that message again.
When I am logged in and enter the 'netstat' command, I see the following entry under foreign address:
NAS:3689 Established
When the kids are logged in, I see the following:
NAS:microsoft-ds Established
I've tried a lot of different things, too numerous to even remember or mention, all with no success. Some troubleshooting measures include:
- change the kids permissions to the music folder on the DiskStation from read only to read/write.
- disabled (not uninstalling) tcpip v6.
- tried every combination of new firewall rule, to include ports 3689, 5353 and every port (and range) in between.
- file and printer sharing is off on the administrator account, and is off on the standard user(s) accounts, but enabling it does not allow access to the library.
- uninstalled Bonjour but once I do that, I cannot see the shared library anymore.
- upgraded Bonjour to the latest version but still no success.
If anybody reading this has other suggestions, please respond.

I actually followed this, but I still had problems that I listed above. Is there any way that when you make changes to one account (even if there is only one main account where changes are made), the changes are automatically (or at least easily) applied to the other user accounts?

Launching application in admin mode for standard users from start/menu

hi
i am currently working on an application which runs fine for admin users but for standard users it ask for admin user name and password. creating shim is not working. what will be the other option so that application can be run for standard users without
asking admin credentials?
thanks all

hi i am developing this application and we are deploying silently to some user's machine. Also i tried to use ACT and shim it as "Run as admin","Run as involker","Run as highest"but nothing works so far. so dont know which option to use. Any registry capture
would be good? or can i know how to apply shim?
I am following the route like
1) create the shim.
2) install application
3) run as standard user. or 1) install application 2) install shim 3) run as standard user.
Nothing works....
Thanks all

Cannot set admin right to my user root account has STANDARD RIGHTS!

I had this common problem, my account turned to standard.
I followed the instructions here.
I changed the root password from the install DVD, restarted.
logged in as "root", but the root user has standard rights as well!!
therefore I cannot change the rights of my user...
any suggestions?

Wow, it looks like you went for the deluxe bugs package.
..."now I'm the adminstrator. but this didn't change the fact, that folder I'm creating ( doesn't matter where ) have "read only" rights for the admin. system has read write....
You hadn't mentioned that before, but actually that sounds like a completely different problem, one that can be caused by using "repair permissions" on a 10.5 volume while booted from a 10.4 (or earlier) disk - this might also include having used "DiskWarrior" to repair permissions (something the manufacturer advises against). Unfortunately, Apple is in the process of revising how "repair permissions" works, and the new method in 10.5 doesn't appear to be fully implemented. As a result, it does not fix this problem, which is purely a permissions issue. If this is indeed the problem, the most straightforward way to get back to a normal system is to reinstall - an "archive and install" while preserving network and user settings should be sufficient for this particular issue. If you are comfortable with the command line, it may be possible to change permissions manually - it would be necessary to attempt a permissions "repair" or "verify" under Leopard, and to record and carefully analyze the messages to determine what needs to be fixed, and how.
The "Finder" crashes are due to another bug - the GUI crashes when there are files or folders with a group ID that doesn't correspond to a group record in "DirectoryService". There are various strategies to use as workarounds: if all of the problem files have the same group ID, it is probably fastest just to create a group record for that group. If there are a number of different groups involved, doing a batch change of group from the command line might be easier. To get an ideal of what groups are involved, the following command can be used to display the various factors regulating access to a particular file or folder - try using it to survey a selection of different items exhibiting the problem:<pre>
ls -elO /path/to/item</pre>
Copying the items to an external drive, then copying them back to a folder that does not display "(unknown)" in "Get Info" might be another strategy (but note that there have been some reports of data loss copying large amounts of data - even after the 10.5.1 update, and even copying instead of moving). Ultimately, these are just workarounds and Apple really needs to fix this sooner than later - it's getting stupid.
But actually, considering all of the different issues you are experiencing, backing up the data to an external drive (and verifying the integrity of the backup), then performing a full "erase and install" might be the one stop solution. I'm not sure about the best strategy for reimporting the data once that is done since I have never used the Apple tools and do not know how they handle ownership and permissions (what is perserved, etc.) - hopefully someone else will be able to fill in those details.
So you were bitten by the "Get Info" crash bug, a second issue caused directly by following what turned out to be bad advice in an official kb article, and had a permissions problem that couldn't be resolved using the tool that is supposed to deal with permissions problem. I'd call that a Leopard beta hat trick.

App Run As at standard users.

Hi
I work & manage domain environment.
There is a particular file that I want to give it administrator privileges so that he can make changes to the system.
The file should work for users who do not have local administrator permission.
I prefer to avoid creating batch File because I want to give the permission to the application itself.
I did not find solutions on the net, and what I found is not working.
also the black\white list at the policy management does not change anything.
Thanks

Hi,
Could you please have a share about which file that you would like it to have admin rights here?
There seems to be not possible to achieve such goals in addition to scripts or some 3rd party tools.
Besides, please take a look at the below thread to see if they could help here:
Admin Permissions for standard user for one program
Running a Program as Admin, logged in as a standard
user.
Best regards
Michael Shao
TechNet Community Support

How to disable airport so that standard users can't reenable it ?

Even when I disable airport interface from the command line :
sudo ifconfig en1 down (what requires sudo privileges)
a standard user can reenable it ! Strange behaviour compared to linux or windows OS.
If someone knows how to block airport, please let me know.
Thanks

Hello,
Thank you for the answers.
All users are standard users.
The option I was searching for is in System Preferences - Network - AirPort - Advanced - Require admin password for : Disabling or enabling AirPort. The other two options could be useful too.
I think I'll add this to my base image. In the meantime I'll try to apply the settings via Apple Remote
I didn't find the exact settings to enable the 3 options from the command line, if you know how to do this please tell me.
I found a few very useful commands though :
Disable/Enable airport from the command line
networksetup -setairportpower en1 off/on
That's the command I will use when all machines will be configured with "Require admin password for : Disabling or enabling AirPort". If it's not configured the user can reenable airport.
Disable/Enable airport service from the command line :
networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled AirPort off/on
That's the command that can help when you haven't block the users yet. A standard user can reenable the service but he needs to know the command as well as how to use terminal.
p.a

Windows 2008RS Server standard user send message to anyone on server including the administrator

Can someone help me to setup the standard user send a messages to everyone on the rds. I can send a message from the administrator to users but standard user can not send message back of to each other.

Hi,
In RD Session Host Configuration (tsconfig.msc), please double-click RDP-Tcp. On the Security tab, click Advanced, select Remote Desktop Users group, click Edit, then select Message and save your changes. After making this change any users that
are currently logged on will need to log off completely and back on for the change to take effect.
Thanks.
-TP

User cannot change password option is automatically getting unchecked while giving domain admin rights

user cannot change password option is automatically getting unchecked while giving domain admin rights

Greetings!
"Domain Admins" falls into the category of protected groups and it is included in ADminSDHolder process. It is normal and was designed in order to prevent the modification to these privileged groups. More information on the link below:
AdminSDHolder, Protected Groups and SDPROP
Regards.
Mahdi Tehrani |
|
www.mahditehrani.ir
Please click on Propose As Answer or to mark this post as
and helpful for other people.
This posting is provided AS-IS with no warranties, and confers no rights.
How to query members of 'Local Administrators' group in all computers?

How i can change to standard user, an admin user

Hi,
How I can change to standard user an admin user, if the check box can not be unchecked.
I have opened the lock to allow for future changes.
I have more than one admin user.
As root user, I can't do it.
Thanks.

Hi,
I have, but looks the same, unable to change.
I finally decided to create a new standard user and delete this.
Thanks for the support.

Send a Unix command through ARD that will change a OS X admin user to a standard user.

I would love to send a Unix command through ARD that will change a OS X admin user to a standard user. The only thing I found close is
sudo dscl . -delete /Groups/admin GroupMembership USERNAME
which does remove the user from the list of admins, but they are still listed as an admin in the user preference panel, and can still use their account to authenticate for admin privileges.

I'm not having any problems adding or removing users from the 'admin' group by using the syntax's
dscl . -delete /Groups/admin GroupMembership ARDusername
or
dscl . -append /Groups/admin GroupMembership ARDusername
What I'm saying is if a user is ticked as an Adminstrator in System Preferences and I run the
dscl . -delete /Groups/admin GroupMembership ARDusername syntax and remove them from the 'admin' GroupMembership they still have the Administrator box ticked in System Prefs and can administer the machine.
By the way the '/' doesn't work in the syntax in ARD.
Thanks

I am using mac os x 10.7 and forgot my admin password. i can log in to my sons ok but he is a standard user so unable to make config changes. does anyone know hw i can reset my admin pw please?

hi i am using macosx 10.7 and have managed to forget my password being the administrator its a bit of a problem. i can, however, sign in using my son's log-in but he is only a standard user with no admin rights. any idears how i can gat my admin rights back?

http://osxdaily.com/2011/09/19/change-password-mac-os-x-10-7-lion-without-knowin g-current-password/

Windows 7 Elevating using UAC, does not change the standard users setting, it runs the Admins settings

When elevating privilege for a standard user using an admin account, the UAC runs the application under the admins account "user" and not the standard users account "user", the problem is that doing so, it does not change the standard
users settings
In this example, trying to change the "Check for Updates Automatically" as the standard user, is grayed out, you have to be an admin to change this. This is a design of Java.
When you right click and run as an administrator, the option is no longer grayed out and can be deselected, however, this only changes that setting for the admins specific "user", not the standard users specific "user" the admin is elevating
privilege for. as illustrated below.
Is there a work around for an admin to run his credentials but elevate the standard users session instead of his own or some other way to set the standard users setting when admin credentials are required?

Hi,
Based on your description, I understand that you want to disable
Check for Updates Automatically option for standard users in Java.
You can achieve this target by editing
EnableJavaUpdate registry entry. For more details, please refer to following articles and check if can help you.
(Please back up before that registry operation. That will help us to avoid unexpected issues.)
How to disable Java Update in Windows
7
Disable Java updates with
Group Policy
Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft
does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
However, this issue is related to Java product. I suggest that you should contact with Java product support.
I believe we will get a better assistance there.
If anything I misunderstand or any update, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Justin Gu
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

Restrict Standard User from not removing the COM-Addins registered under HKLM with Admin rights.

Hello,
I have developed a COM-Addin for word 2013 by VS 2013 and installed it under the HKLM with Admin rights. Now from an non-admin account, ie Standard User I'm able to uncheck that addin from the COM-Addins dialog and remove it also. Previously I have done the
same thing for word 2007 addins and if a non-admin user tries to uncheck it the warning "The
connected state of Office Add-ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed" pops
up. But this is not happening for office 2013 apps(basically word, excel and powerpoint).
This is happening for all Add-Ins installed under HKLM.
How can a Standard User be restricted from unchecking and removing the Office Addins registered under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE with same warning "The
connected state of Office Add-ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed" in
a pop-up box?
Regards, Sayan

Hi,
The behavior is changed since Office 2010. Office 2010 and Office 2013 allows a standard user to turn a per-machine add-in off by unchecking the add-in in the COM Add-ins dialog.
To restrict Standard User from not removing the COM Add-ins, we can try to add the add-in to
the Group Policy option: List of managed add-ins in the Office Group Policy template.
Word for example, the policy is under:
User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Word 2013\Miscellaneous
To enable this policy setting, provide the following information for each add-in:
In "Value name", specify the programmatic identifier (ProgID) for COM add-ins, or specify the file name of Word add-ins.
To obtain the ProgID for an add-in, use Registry Editor on the client computer where the add-in is installed to locate key names under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins.
To obtain the file name of an add-in, click the File menu in the application where the add-in is installed. Click Options, click Add-ins, and then use the Location column to determine the file name of the add-in.
In "Value," specify the value as follows:
To specify that an add-in is always enabled, type 1.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Steve Fan
TechNet Community Support

Migrating files from Admin to Standard user?

Hello, I am currently using my macbook with my account as Admin. I read in a magazine that its probably best to run in on a daily basis as a Standard user. So I created a new standard user. So far so good. The problem is that all my files are obviously missing from this new account. How do I transfer my files which currently reside in my admin account to my standard user? Ideally, I'd like to move them, as I presume there is no need to have them twice.
Also, will this migration affect my programs and if so how do I deal with this ? Are programs always available to all users?
Last but not least, when using my admin account everytime I have to install a program, it asks me for my password. I cannot remember if this was an option I chose or if this is happens by default (even when logged in as admin). If this is an option, where do I go to change this as I would like to be able to instal progs without being prompted for my password when logged in as admin.
Thxs,

In this situation, rather than transferring all of the files, it is usually easiest to create a new "admin" account, then continue to use your existing account after "demoting" it to "standard" by unchecking the "Allow user to administer this computer" checkbox in the "Accounts" pref pane.
..."will this migration affect my programs and if so how do I deal with this ? Are programs always available to all users?"...
All default applications should be accessible to all users. Any installed by you may or may not be accessible to other users depending on how and where they were installed, and continuing to use your existing account largely avoids that sort of problem.
..."I would like to be able to instal progs without being prompted for my password when logged in as admin."...
In principle, the password requirement should be considered a security feature to prevent unauthorized modification of the system. Consider what would happen if everyone started overriding this feature -- it likely wouldn't take long for Macs to become a significant contributor to the phishing e-mail and spam issue that Windows computers are largely responsible for today, that are a nuisance to everyone on the web.
On the other hand, most user applications should not require modification of system files to install, i.e. they can be installed (via "drag and drop" or otherwise) to a places that the user has "write" privileges to, and should not require authentication. If any unneccessarily request a passord, that is an issue that should be taken up with the developer (which may include Apple, on some occasions).

Cannot change admin user to standard user (2 Admin Accounts)

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for