Need help on Built in Admin

[R_W_B]

I set up my Acer with OEM win10 a few months back didn't have any real problems albeit I did get some advice back then setting it up. Now I'm setting up another Acer Laptop OEM win10 for my wife. I have the following confusions.

From normal login to my wife's account

net user (gives me the following)
Administrator DefaultAccount defaultuser0
DonnaAcer Guest

Ok I have 2 accts showing. However in the file manager I also have the Default & Public accts. I surmise they are hidden and don't show up in Net User readouts.

Also I surmise the above admin is probably the built in admin (?) I also check that below in net user.
But it's kinda funny as I've never seen the built acct named like that. I have seen OEM user setup accts named like that in the past. And I usually deleted them (when they were not built ins).

Ok moving on . .

DonnaAcer (my wife's acct) is the one I setup upon questions on first bootup.
It has administrator privileges and it's the only one that shows in Control Panel->User Accounts.

Ok so I want to go to Safe Mode to check some things so I set msconfig to boot safe mode and then restart.
I get a login prompt from DonnaAcer (only) nothing else. If I hit enter without a pswd I get nothing.
I surmise the built in Administrator acct (or any other acct) is hidden or set not active ?
So I then give it the pswd for my (wife's) account and a box comes up that says,
This app can't open
Get Started can't be opened using the Built-in Administrator account.
Sign in with a different account and try again.

?? Well this is really confusing because I'm not in the built in admin, rather I logged safe mode in my wife's acct.
And what exactly is 'Get Started' I don't remember seeing this on my last Acer Win10 setup.
And do I need it to do whatever in Safe mode?

So while I'm in safe mode (under my wife';s acct) I do some checking on what the built in admin is like.

net user administrator (and I get this)
---
User name Administrator
Full Name
Comment Built-in account for administering the computer/domain
User's comment
Country/region code 000 (System Default)
Account active No
Account expires Never

Password last set 3/4/2018 3:46:53 AM
Password expires Never
Password changeable 3/4/2018 3:46:53 AM
Password required Yes
User may change password Yes
-------cut off rest of redundant stuff

So it appears to in fact be the built in but I'm concerned about the fact that it has a pswd (password).
I've never done anything with it and have no idea what the password is? So I guess I'm locked out of it.
I realize from past learning that the built acct should be left inactive for security reasons.
And that you should activate only to give it a password of your own.

I would like to give it my own password and I also would like to (if necessary) boot to it in safe mode.

Also I noticed while in safe mode (under my wife's acct login)
if I type net user ( I get this)
--------
User accounts for \\
Administrator DefaultAccount defaultuser0
DonnaAcer Guest
The command completed with one or more errors.
--------
Wonder what's up with that I did not get all the extra error stuff in normal mode (shown at top of post)

And this built in acct is showing in the file explorer as
c:\Users\defaultuser0\

I guess at this point I'm stuck with the name of defaultuser0 for the built in?
Or is there a way to change it back to Administrator without a total recovery?

Appreciate any input on this.

 

[R_W_B]

I've been searching around and it appears the OEM tech that loaded my machine with windows 10 setup a DOMAIN\Administrator with the built in Administrator acct.

I think this is causing some errors running net user in safe mode.

Is there any way I can get rid of the domain thing (defaultUser0) that comes up on the end of a net user listing.

 

[Bighorn]

Look in C:\Users, is there a Default without the 0? Should be as it is a Default during installation. Does the login show as having Administrative rights? If so you could create a new User [your name?] with Administrative rights, create a password YOU can remember, log out/reboot, log into the new User, then in Control Panel or Settings, Accounts to delete the undesired User, save the files when prompted if desired.

 

[R_W_B]

Look in C:\Users, is there a Default without the 0? Should be as it is a Default during installation. Does the login show as having Administrative rights? If so you could create a new User [your name?] with Administrative rights, create a password YOU can remember, log out/reboot, log into the new User, then in Control Panel or Settings, Accounts to delete the undesired User, save the files when prompted if desired.

Yes there is a user profile, c:\Users\defaultuser0\
I can't see it on any login screen, normal boot or safe mode.
However while the defaultuser0 was highlighted in file manager I right clicked properties and went to Security Tab to pop up.
It shows that the defaultuser0 has administrator privileges as does my wife's acct and the built in admin acct.

I ran net user again and tried somethings different. I had previous thought since net user (gave this readout below)
Administrator Default defaultuser0
DonnaAcer Guest

that each line was for the one user on left and the rest of line were attributes to that user (yea I'm a dummy).
But from experimentation I've learned that net user is actually putting all listed users on one line across the page and it's just wrapping on my shell screen at DonnaAcer.

So in fact I have 5 accounts showing, Currently all (except DonnaAcer) were hidden from login prompt.

I'm pretty sure now that the defaultuser0 is not the built in administrator acct. Cause net user defaultuser0 (gets this)
User name defaultuser0
Full Name
Comment
User's comment
Country/region code 000 (System Default)
Account active No
Account expires Never
----
It doesn't have the ->comment Built-in account for administering the computer/domain

defaultuser0 was probably just a pseudo acct for tech load of Windows. I've seen this in the past and I think I could probably delete the defaultuser0. Keep in mind the defaultuser0 is NOT the windows built in Default acct. Actually I think net user listed that one as DefaultAccount. It's the one that it's folder in c:\Users is kinda grayed out. Anyhow I know to leave it alone as it's an inherent part of windows. It's the infamous OEM defaultuser0 acct I would rather delete than leave it. Although someone once told me the defaultuser0 acct came from a bug in the anniversary issue.

Anyhow for then I was back to the fact that I wanted to get into the built in administrator acct and give my own password.

But it's readout says it has a password already.

So first thing I did was activate it so it would show on boot from safe mode.
I did that with
net user administrator /active:yes

Then I ran msconfig again and set to boot to safe mode, when I got to safe mode this time I had both my wife's acct and the administrator accts showing for login.

So I clicked the administrator acct. I tried it with no password, no go.
I tried it with admin (for a password) no go.

So then I clicked my wife's login (it's admin privilege too) and logged into it. (still in safe mode)

I then went to admin cmd prompt and looked at net user cmd options with
net user ?

It appeared that I could reset the password but I had thought you had to have the current password to do so. It doesn't seem very secure if just any other admin acct can give a new pswd without knowing the existing one.

Well anyhow I tried this
net user administrator mypassword (where mypassword was really the pswd I wanted to use)

It said command completed successfully.

I'm thinking either it never had a password and it would not let me log in without giving it one OR then it appears any other admin acct can just give a new one at will. That doesn't seem too secure but in this case it solved my issue of getting into it.

So then leaving msconfig set to safe mode I restarted, this time I selected the admin acct and typed in the pswd I had previously assigned it and I logged in as the built in administrator.

Well some funny things started happening, at first the windows OOBE (Out Of the Box Experience) started up. I'm thinking on no. It ran till it got to it's first screen and then it just faded away like it died.

So finally I'm in the built in acct in safe mode. I don't remember having this much trouble getting here on my last Acer win10 OEM setup.

Ok moving on, I go to a cmd shell prompt and type in
net user defaultuser0 /delete

It said, command completed successfully.

I do a net user

and I get,
Administrator Default DonnaAcer
Guest

The defaultuser0 acct is now gone.

Then I want to set my built-in administrator back to inactive so it's not viewable.
I do a,
net user administrator /active:no

I goto msconfig and uncheck safe boot and restart.

I'm now back into my wife's admin acct in normal win10 boot.

I still have the c:Users\defaultuser0\ folder, but the acct is gone and I have my own pswd in my built in administrator acct and I have it not active.

I think I may call it a night for now. I'm kinda tire.
But tomorrow I will probably delete the defaultuser0 folder from Users
and go thru with regedit and get rid of any keys referencing the defaultuser0.
Then I may (or may not) create a guest account with low privilege and no login pswd. This in case someone at home wants to use my laptop.

I appreciate any comments that anyone might think helpful to me at this time.
Or where they think I might have screwed up. I can always at this point just do a full recover.