How to Add TestStand Administrator User Account After Deletion

Updated May 22, 2023

Reported In

Software

  • TestStand
  • TestStand 2017

Issue Details

The administrator account on my TestStand application was somehow deleted. I would like to add the administrator account back to TestStand without losing the other user accounts in TestStand.

Solution

If you have another computer with the same TestStand user accounts, you can copy the users.ini file from that computer and replace the users.ini file in your current computer. You can find this file in the Cfg file in the TestStand directory. For instance, the file path might be C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\<TestStand>\Cfg.

If you have another user account with administrator privileges, you can add back in the default "administrator account." Do so by going to TestStand Sequence Editor >> View >> User Manager. Once you're in User Manager, right click on Users and select Add User.
Once you've added the new user, change the name to "administrator."

Next, right click on the new user "administrator" and select Properties. Under Group Privileges, select Administrator and hit OK.

 

Additional Information

If you don't have another computer with the same user accounts available, and you don't have another account with administrator privileges, you may need to set the users.ini file to default as the steps below. 
  1. Shut down TestStand
  2. Browse to C:\Program Files\National Instruments\<TestStand>\Cfg
  3. Delete Users.ini file
  4. Restart TestStand and the Users.ini file will be set to default
Notes: You will delete any other users for that machine, and you may have to manually add them again.