net localgroup add group with spaces and ampersand

Question

I am trying to create a script that will enable our automated tool to add certain groups into the localgroups of our servers:

net localgroup dbusers aceina\A&H Support (Accenture) /add

The problem I have is that it doesn't seem to like the "&".

C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN>net localgroup dbusers 'aceina\A&H Support (Accenture)' /add
The syntax of this command is:


NET LOCALGROUP [groupname [/COMMENT:"text"]] [/DOMAIN]
          groupname {/ADD [/COMMENT:"text"] | /DELETE}  [/DOMAIN]
          groupname name [...] {/ADD | /DELETE} [/DOMAIN]

'H' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

I tried single and double quotes without any success. Can anyone suggest a way to get around this please?

EDIT

Tried:

C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN>net localgroup dbusers "aceina\A^&H Support (Accenture)" /add
The syntax of this command is:


NET LOCALGROUP [groupname [/COMMENT:"text"]] [/DOMAIN]
          groupname {/ADD [/COMMENT:"text"] | /DELETE}  [/DOMAIN]
          groupname name [...] {/ADD | /DELETE} [/DOMAIN]

and:

C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN>net localgroup dbusers 'aceina\A^&H Support (Accenture)' /add
There is no such global user or group: 'aceina\A&H.

System error 1788 has occurred.

The trust relationship between the primary domain and the trusted domain failed.

Thanks

Answer 1

In the Windows Command Prompt, use ^ to escape characters:

net localgroup dbusers "aceina\A^&H Support (Accenture)" /add

Answer 2

net localgroup "A&H Support (Accenture)" /add
The command completed successfully.

Worked a charm.

Answer 3

I just did the following using CMD.EXE from a Windows XP Professional SP2-based machine that is a member of the "DOMAIN" W2K3 Active Directory domain, logged-on with a user account that has both local "Administrator" and "Domain Admin" rights:

C:\Documents and Settings\EAnderson>net group "A&B Test" /domain /add
The request will be processed at a domain controller for domain ad.tippcity.k12.
oh.us.

The command completed successfully.


C:\Documents and Settings\EAnderson>net localgroup "users" "DOMAIN\A&B Tes
t" /add
The request will be processed at a domain controller for domain ad.tippcity.k12.
oh.us.

The command completed successfully.

Double quotes look fine to me.

Answer 4

C:>net localgroup "administrators" "adom\group012345678901234" /add

The command completed sucessfully

C:>net localgroup "administrators" "adom\group0123456789012345" /add

The syntax of this command is:

NET LOCALGROUP
[groupname [/COMMENT:"text"]] [/DOMAIN]
              groupname {/ADD [/COMMENT:"text"] | /DELETE}  [/DOMAIN]
              groupname name [...] {/ADD | /DELETE} [/DOMAIN]

C:>

Seems net.exe has a problem with long group names. HATE!

Answer 5

I know it sounds crazy, but it's actually because of the length of the group name, not because it has a space. That's why the other people responded saying it worked for them (because the group names they tried weren't as long). I was having the same problem you were, but I found out it was because of the long group name that the "net" command wasn't handling properly. Then I found a utility called "lg" from joeware.net. It worked like a champ. Hopefully this info will help someone else who stumbles on this issue.

Answer 6

You’ll notice that if you use a “net localgroup administrators /add DOMAIN\Group” that the command fails with a syntax error. Some folks say that this is because of a limitation on the length of the group name, but I call shenanigans on that explanation. At any rate, you’ll slam your head against your desk for a while, until you do the following:

1) Open up Notepad

2) Paste in the following lines, substituting [DOMAINNAME] and [DOMAINGROUPNAME] as necessary:

Set objLocalGroup = GetObject("WinNT://./Administrators")

Set objADGroup1 = GetObject("WinNT://DOMAINNAME/DOMAINGROUPNAME")

objLocalGroup.Add(objADGroup1.ADsPath)

Set objLocalGroup = Nothing

Set objADGroup = Nothing

3) Go to File > Save As, and save it on your Desktop as “script.vbs”

4) Go to Start and type in cmd, then right-click on cmd and choose “Run as Administrator”:

5) CD to your Desktop and then run the command: “cscript script.vbs” as in the example below, and once the script runs, do a “net localgroup administrators” to verify that the script added the requested group properly: