Administrator is Now Standard User

Something happened that caused both my username and that of the Administrator to become Standard users. When I look in the User control panel it says Administrator password protected for both my username and administrator. But when I say manage that account it shows as Standard User and I cannot change it to Administrator as it is grayed out when I select that.
I first noticed this when I lost the ability to "Runas Administrator" with my account.
I created a new user account making it Administrator but it does not have the ability to manage my old account either. However it does have the ability to "Runas Administrator" again. Which seems ignoant to me that it is needed for some programs.
I use MSE and Malwarebytes Pro routinely. A scan by both found nothing.


At this time I only have two options:

1. Restore to December 22nd and reinstall about 20 programs and 20 Windows updates. (new computer)
2. Run Fred langa's non destructive re-install. (Reapply windows updates since SP1, I have dialup so this would be a big issue also.)

What may have happened and I don't know where to look is that I brought it to work and connected it to our T1 network (not in the domain), and that is where I did the windows updates and program updates. Our domain has a policy that does not allow local administrator unless it was already there. In this case I thought it was, but since my experience and our network is still XP Pro not sure how W7 local administrator works.
Any suggestions welcomed.

According to your system spec's you are running Windows 7 Pro.... So;
You may need to use your newly created administrators group account to perform the following.
Click the start orb and type
lusrmgr.msc
and hit enter
In the left pane select "Users"
in the center pane double click the account you are having issues with
Select the "Member of" tab
and click the "Add" button -> "Advanced" button -> "Find Now" button
Select the "Administrators" Group and OK your way back out of there.
See if that provides the desired results.

Trouble,
I'll give that a try tonight. i know one of the mistakes I made was to unhide the Administrator account. If I can restore it I'll certainly hide for Safemode only stuff.

Well I followed your directions and They were already Members of Administrator Group.
Perhaps I am not understanding this correctly. When I click on manage an account the Standard button is selected and it will not let me change it to Administrator, is that because it is really an Administrator already?
I did an experiment last night on the CMD command. I had been trying to Runas Administrator the Run command, so I made a shortcut to cmd on the desktop where I am able to Runas Administrator. Is there a way to Runas from the run promt on the start menu.