Create a local administrator account

Generally, we recommend that everyone uses their personal College account to login to computers. In some situations, such as when cleaning malware, it may be prudent to use a local administrator account (and not a network account) to access a computer. If you expect that you will need a local administrator account for this purposes, here is how you can create one:

1. Login with an account that has administrative privileges.
2. Open Control Panel => User Accounts.
3. Most of our computers are added to the Middlebury domain and therefore have a tab titled "Advanced" -- click on this tab, then click on the button titled "Advanced".
4. A window titled Local Users and Groups will appear.
5. To create a new local user, click on Users, then right-click on blank area in the right pane and select "New User".
6. In the New User window that appears, the only required fields are the username and password box. We recommend that you set a strong password that complies to our handbook policy (see Handbook => Password Policy). We also recommend that you uncheck "user must change password".
7. Click Create and click Close.
8. To grant administrative privileges on the new local user, double-click the new user and click on the tab "Member of".
9. Under "Member of" click Add and in the window that appears type in "Administrators" and click OK and OK again.