Fix: You need to sign in as an administrator to continue

We all know that how important is an administrator for a Windows based system. The administrator has all the rights to manage the Windows OS. Only an administrator can create new accounts or delete existing ones. When you have to make crucial changes to system, you need to execute commands as administrator. For that, you have to open Command Prompt as administrator. However, if you are not able to open WinRE Command Prompt because of no administrator, this article is for you. Recently, while opening recovery mode Command Prompt, one of my reader received You need to sign in as an administrator to continue, but there aren’t any administrator accounts on this PC message.

He then contacted me and asked me for a remedy. So if you are also facing the similar problem on your system, you can try the solution which I shared with the reader. It solved his problem in few minutes, so you can also give a try, may be it could help you as well.

Fix: You need to sign in as an administrator to continue

First of all, we need to understand why this error occurs. So the main reason you are facing this problem is obviously due to lack of any admin accounts. If you have used any NETPLWIZ command and changed all of admin accounts to standard user account in the User Accounts applet, there will no admin left on system. However, when you go to WinRE Command Prompt, the built-in administrator with ‘Administrator’ account should be automatically enabled in this condition. That account is specially present to handle this kind of scenarios. You can then use WinRE Command Prompt as built-in administrator. But if that account is not enabled, you get this error message.

To resolve it, try these steps:

1. Boot using Windows 10 bootable USB.
2. Then click on Next in Windows Setup screen.
3. Moving on, click on Repair your computer link in next screen of same window.
4. Now click Troubleshoot > Advanced options and select Command Prompt.
5. Your system will reboot for Command Prompt. There will no information asked for any account and hence Command Prompt will open after reboot.
6. Type net user administrator /active:yes and press Enter. This must enable the built-in administrator.
7. Close Command Prompt and reboot to OS. Now go WinRE Command Prompt and you should be able to use it with ‘Administrator’ account.

Hope this helps!