But I am the Administrator

Niece brought me her Laptop. Xp Pro Service Pack 2

Complaint was that she could not remove AVG (by grisoft) nor install a newly purchased McAfee.

Not only can't that be done, I found out that you also can't open the control panel.

Errors always say that you must be logged on as the Administrator. I have tried the default administrator account, and two others. All with the same result.

I have tried recovery console, only to be told I am not the administrator (logged on as administrator.....)

I am ready to install over this, but before I do, does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Have you tried Safe Mode..?
Have you tried REGEDIT..? To remove AVG and McAfee
Have you tried System Restore..?
Have you tried SFC..?
Have you tried Last known good configeration..?
Above Not in any order..

 

You might also want to check for policies (Local System Policies) that are restricting what can be done. It is a common misunderstanding to think that Administrators can do anything. Administrators can be restricted, but always have the ability to modify that restriction.

DRD

 

In XP, there is a "real" admin account, and a "User Admin" account. By default, the User Account created first is the one with admin priveleges, but it is NOT the real admin account. Since you are dealing with XP Pro, it is fairly easy to log in as the "real" administrator. Tap Control-Alt-Delete at the windows log on screen, and type administrator for user, and her XP password, NOT the one she uses to log into her user admin account with. If she had XP Home, she would have to log in as admin in safe mode. Either XP can get the admin option at log on by downloading TweakUI, an MS PowerToy. (Despite the warnings, both versions can live happily together on an XP machine, and each version has different options.)

Taking ownership in XP

Johanna