[Question] Admin account vs. Built-In Administrator

[ShadowCodeX-debug]

Are the different users are the same user?

[cschneegans]

I don't quite understand the question.

A user account Admin would be different from the user account Administrator. The user account Administrator already exists when you install Windows, but it is inactive by default.

[ShadowCodeX-debug]

The reason I'm asking this is because there are mentions of seemingly 2 different admin accounts. In the User accounts section, there is both the "Admin" account which name and password can be changed but, then there's also a sub-section labeled First logon that mentions a "Build-In Administrator" account which can only have it's password changed.

I was confused on if they we're the same user or different users.

[cschneegans]

Those are indeed two different user accounts. You can create zero or more user accounts in the Administrators group, but you cannot use names of built-in accounts, including Administrator, Guest or System. The preset name Admin has no special significance.

The built-in account Administrator behaves differently than other administrator accounts. For example, it is not subject to UAC by default (see the FilterAdministratorToken registry value), and it also not subject to an Account Lockout Policy for local logins.

The form makes sure that you have at least one administrator account enabled – otherwise, you could not perform any administrative tasks on the new Windows installation.

[ShadowCodeX-debug]

Thank you.