Member Avatar for gpompeus

Hi Guys,

I have Administrator rights to a Laptop running XP Home Edition and i need to use Regedit from another account on the same Laptop. How do I give access to use the Regedit to the other account from my Administrator account....

When I run the regedit from the other account it gives me a message saying "Administrator has disabled the Regedit function"

Thanks in advance ! ! ! ! !

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by gerbil

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This is a common XP Home situation: the message you see usually means a per-user restriction was set (or malware flipped the setting) so regedit is blocked for that account. already pointed to two practical approaches (fix the other account's user hive from an admin session, or give the account temporary admin rights), and correctly highlighted that some management tools found on other Windows editions are not available on Home. The notes below expand those options with safe, actionable steps and extra troubleshooting advice.

If you can temporarily elevate the other account, do that first: use Control Panel -> User Accounts to make the account an administrator, sign into it, run regedit and undo the restriction, then sign back into your admin account and revert the account to its previous type. Always create a System Restore point before touching registry-related settings.

If you prefer not to change account types, use the built-in Administrator from Safe Mode to repair the user profile without giving permanent rights: reboot, enter Safe Mode, log on as Administrator, and apply the correction to the affected user profile (load/unload the profile hive and remove the restriction). Back up the user profile file before editing and unload the hive when finished.

From an admin account you can also run the Registry Editor with elevated credentials without switching users. For example:

runas /user:Administrator regedit.exe

You will be prompted for the Administrator password; run the tool under that context, fix the user restriction, then close and restart normally.

If the restriction appeared unexpectedly, treat malware as a likely cause: boot Safe Mode, run a full scan with up-to-date anti-malware tools (for example, Malwarebytes and a reputable scanner), and check autoruns/startup entries. After repair, remove any temporary admin elevation and verify normal behavior. If problems persist, consider restoring to an earlier restore point or performing a repair/factory install — XP is no longer supported, so plan an upgrade once the system is clean.

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Member Avatar for gerbil

Heh.. you could run a script FROM that account: http://www.dougknox.com/security/scripts_desc/regtools.htm . It will require a restart.
Or you could load that User's hive [their NTUser.dat file] with regedit from YOUR account and edit the policy in this key:HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Simplest is to give that ac temporary Admin rights.

Member Avatar for gpompeus

Thank you gerbil ! ! ! I will try it now ....... Thanks again

Member Avatar for c-tech

i am guessing the user is a limited user account. otherwise if the user has administrative rights but still can not access this tool(regedit) then you could be having an issue with a virus infection. otherwise, if the user is a limited user you should access the group policy editor in the administrator account and allow the user to have the right to access regedit. you can access the group policy editor tool by typing gpedit.msc in the run dialog box. good luck.

Member Avatar for gerbil

He's running Home.... so no GPEdit to play with.... :(

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