Using notepad as run as administrator

I am trying to work my way through Kevin Yanks book Build your own database driven web site. IF I am asking this in the wrong forum please point me to the right one.
I am trying to set up the Apache configuration but right clicking on notepad and clicking run as administrator. I do not have a password set up on my computor and do not want one. When I check the administrator button it asks for a password and when I just hit enter it will not let me in.
I cannot save the file changes to the Apache 2.2 file.
Is there a way around this? Do I have to set up a password to do this.
I am working on a notebook with XP and I am the only person who uses this computor so I thougth I would be the administrator.
KrisJ

You must have a password on an account in order to be able to use it through ‘run as’.

Hi krisj. I’ve moved this to the general dev issues forum, but there are a few places it could go. Let’s see how it goes here.

Any time I make a change like that (such as install new software or software updates) I have to confirm as the computer’s admin that I’m OK with it. I’ve never even considered that there’s an option not to do this, but maybe there is. Good question, anyway.

When you log in, do you log in with the “Administrator” account, or one that has your name on it?

Also, is the account you are using an Administrator-level account?

What version of Windows are you running?

I have XP on my computor. When I turn on my computor it goes right to my screen with out having to log on. I assumed it was administrative level account as I am the only one that uses it and I don’t have any other accounts on this one.
I do have a computor name and I know there is a way to change add accounts. I will have to look into this but I really don’t want to have a password on my computor.

Your account is likely -an- administrator account, however, there is usually an account create called “Administrator”.

You can confirm this by going to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users and looking if “Administrator” is listed.

It’s possible there is a password on this account which it may be looking for. Try setting a password for this account (do this through User Accounts) and then give it a try.

If that doesn’t work, then you’ll likely have to password your own account.

If you have two separate accounts - one with full administrator access and a second with limited access for everyday use (whether you have a screen appear at the start to select between them or simply have it automatically log in to your limited account) then you don’t need to set any passwords unless you want to be able to use “run as” from the limited account to run install scripts etc on the admin account.

It is only the “run as” option that requires that the account you are going to run as must have a password (eg “a” is a good enough password to satisfy that requirement). Even where you do set a password on the admin account doesn’t mean you need to set one on any other account.

As almost everything that requires administrator access to run will run just as well using “run as” as it will from the admin account, if you set up a short password on the admin account to use with “run as” you will then almost never need to log in to that actual account directly.

Thank you for all your help. I read samanime and went in and ended up putting a password on my account and got everything to work.
Then I read felgall and liked his suggestion so I am going to remove the password on my account and add an adminstrator account to use for these situations.
Thanks for all the help.
Kris J