No Network Connections visible but still online - warning - tech heavy!

[andysdad]

W8.1 on a Dell PC - I was cleansing it and deleted the original user's profile (which worked fine) and now only have Guest with Admin privileges.

In Network and Sharing Centre there are no connections/adapters visible at all - no WiFi or Ethernet. Network says "unknown" and "access is denied" but web works albeit slowly via Ethernet. Hardware is there in Device Manager and I've removed/reinstalled both.

Much Googling says to add administrators to the localnetwork service but that fails with System Error 5 which is lack of admin privilege even though I ran CMD in Admin and confirmed the UAC box etc.!

It seems I am in a logical loop where a Guest Administrator cannot administrate. I can't add a new User in PC Settings. Just goes to desktop. I'm stumped.

Might have to rebuild PC from scratch.....

All suggestions (apart from buy a Mac, thank you) gratefully received.

A

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

Rebuild from scratch unless you can role the system back to before you deleted the admin account. Not sure if a system repair would help you out with a disk but probably not as you don't have an admin account.

Must have seemed like a good idea at the time to delete the admin account ;-/

 

[Watty100]

Have you tried going back to a previous restore point?

Sent from my LG-K350 using Tapatalk

 

[leadfarmer]

If you can, join the PC to a domain, then use a domain admin account to create a new local admin account, then remove the PC from the domain

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

If you can, join a domain then use a domain admin account to create a new local admin account

Cunning ploy, I like it.

 

[andysdad]

Thanks for the suggestions - I'll look at the domain trick.

I do have Admin privileges as Guest, the UAC box appears when it should but I cannot run CMD properly even though right-clicking CMD allows Run as Admin.

I've retrieved the W8 key and will rebuild but now I need an OEM Version disk (Dell) - anyone got one I could borrow a copy of?

Cheers,

A

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

People don't realise this but the first/original admin account is quite unique. Never tried it but I am actually surprised you can make the guest account t an admin. Might try it tomorrow just for a laugh.

 

[andysdad]

Marki, the main Admin account can be hidden. Mine is but even though the Guest account details in "C\Windows\System32>net user guest" says it is in Group "Administrators", it isn't a real one.

I can start CMD with a right-click "Run as Administrator" but commands as above come back as System Error 5 which means the CMD prompt is not elevated administrator level. Very confusing.

Domain trick won't work on W8 Home Premium apparently.

Looks like a rebuild. I've got a non-OEM disk ISO and can go from there with Dell license.

I can't backup as File History is bust too and my old copy of Acronis is not W8 compatible. A right muddle I've made of this.

There is, of course, a renew PC command (cleans it for resale) but I didn't know that 8 hours ago