Adding a user as a local administrator, Windows Server 2008. (Update)

I originally posted about adding a user as a local administrator with the command linehere.

Since then I have realised that this only applies to Windows Server 2008 Small Business Server. Windows 2008 Standard still uses the old GUI method of adding a user as local admin that is found in Windows XP, or 2003 for example.

This can be done by opening the Computer management console, (right-click Computer) and then select “Manage”.

Expand Local Users and Groups, and then click on Groups. Double click Administrators, click Add, then type the user name in the window that opens and then click Ok. (Check name if you are not sure of the user’s entire username).

That will add the user to the local administrators group the easy way (GUI) and save you the trouble of using the command line instead.

See the screenshot below for what you are looking for.

add-administrator-local-server-2008

 

How to add a user as a local administrator using Windows Server 2008

The computer management console for Server 2008 has changed slightly between now and Windows Server 2003. I was trying to ensure a particular user was setup as a local administrator on a Windows 2008 Small Business Server today, and couldn’t find the option to do this via the GUI. Anyway, for those wondering how this is done using the command prompt, here is the solution.

First you need to run command prompt as an Administrator. Open Computer, go to your C: drive, and navigate to your Windows\System32 directory. Find “cmd.exe” right click on it, and select the run as Administrator option. Once at the command prompt, type the following :

net localgroup Administrators /add (domain)\(username)

(Obviously replace (domain)\(username) with your domainname\username that you want to be the local admin) – That is without the brackets.

You should get a message saying the command completed successfully. If you get an access denied error, you more than likely have not run cmd.exe as an administrator.

Be sure to run cmd.exe as administrator.