Check if Your Account is Administrator in Windows 10

How to Check if Your Account is Administrator in Windows 10

In Windows 10, user accounts have varying levels of access permissions. Two of the most common are standard users and administrators. Here is how you can find if your account is Administrator or a Standard account.

Let’s see first what the difference is between a Standard Account and Administrator.

Standard User accounts

Standard User accounts were intended for everyday usage prior to Vista. The user with a standard account could change some per-user settings to customize his environment, install per-user apps and open any app installed for his account or for all users. Whereas, standard users could not install programs that deeply integrate with the OS or change system-level settings, making it very secure.

However as Windows shipped for years with administrator account as default, everyone ran as admin and few people bothered to run as standard user. UAC was introduced in Vista to balance usability with security. Instead of supplying password or other credentials every time, administrator account only required a manual confirmation and standard accounts required credentials.

So, to do any system level action like installing an app for all users that changes the OS behavior or change system settings, the Standard User account will be prompted to provide credentials for an Administrator account.

Administrative accounts

Administrator: this type of account has full access to all PC settings, administrative tasks and global operating system options. The Administrator account can install programs that deeply integrate with the OS, manage other user accounts, drivers and so on.

As malware started becoming widespread due to the proliferation of the internet and the open nature of the Windows platform, every user running as administrator with full access for any program to modify Windows was dangerous. So UAC was introduced so programs could run elevated only when doing systemwide actions but otherwise even the admin account ran with locked down permissions.

So, when an application requires UAC elevation, the admin account can confirm it using Yes/No dialog prompt on the Secure Desktop. The user need no enter his credentials.

To Check if Your Account is Administrator in Windows 10

1. Open Settings.
2. Browse to User accounts > Your info.
3. On the right, check out if you have the Administrator note below your user account name.
4. Also, for standard user accounts the “family and other users” entry is missing on the left. It appears visible only for administrators.

Alternatively, you can use the command prompt.

Using the command prompt

1. Open a new command prompt instance.
2. Type the following command: net localgroup Administrators.
3. This will print all accounts which have administrative privileges on your PC.
4. Check out if you see your user account there. If you don’t see it, then your account is a standard user. You can ensure this using the next command: net localgroup Users.
5. This will list the Standard user accounts registered on your PC.

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