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I am software developer on Windows of many years, but have always managed to avoid learning exactly how Windows login security works.

I have a home/office network of PCs (and one Mac) running various versions of Windows, and a dedicated server box running Win 8.1 (called NSERVER). For a long time, I have exposed a shared folder on the server for everyone to use with full access, but this is becoming unworkable, and I want to restrict access to different areas of the folder tree to different users.

I'm familiar with allocation of permissions to folders, but this implies user identities that exist on the server. I'm wondering how these are related to the client-based user identities that we login with.

Can they be linked somehow? Or must we login with NSERVER\User to access the server resources? In which case, what is the relationship between the server identity and the local resources of the client computer?

I would also really like to understand the purpose of and difference between the various default identities that Windows provides (Authenticated Users, Users, SYSTEM, Administrators, Guest, Everyone).

No need to answer in detail if these are really basic questions. Would very much appreciate a link to a primer on the whole subject, with a focus on setting up a local network in this way.

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  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the only way this question could be more off topic for ServerFault is if you were selling Viagra.
    – Wesley
    Oct 4, 2015 at 1:21
  • Thanks for your interest @Wesley. Perhaps you could suggest a more appropriate forum?
    – stephen
    Oct 4, 2015 at 1:23
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    To clarify Wesley's comment: Firstly, this is not a forum. Second, this is a QA site for experienced systems administrators, i.e. people who no longer have a need of basic primers. Lastly, to learn this subject, a web site with a primer is rarely enough - go get some training, or at the very least, buy a book.
    – Jenny D
    Oct 4, 2015 at 6:48

1 Answer 1

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This is why Active Directory Domain Services exists. Authentication is centralized, so that user and group principals can be given access to resources on other members of the domain, such as your file sever.

If you're doing this without an AD DS domain, you'll need to manage local logins on each server, which is a PITA.

I would also really like to understand the purpose of and difference between the various default identities that Windows provides (Authenticated Users, Users, SYSTEM, Administrators, Guest, Everyone).

Read this: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/243330

And as an aside: you don't have a server box if it's running a desktop operating system. You happen to have a desktop with a bunch of disks in it.

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  • Thanks, yes you are correct, what I am using as a "server" is just a desktop box. I understand that ADDS is only on Windows Server, which I do not have. So can you point me to more detail on what is involved in managing local logins? There is only one server. Thanks for the link.
    – stephen
    Oct 4, 2015 at 1:41
  • You've already answered what you need to do without AD DS. Connect to server-based resources with the local login on the server.
    – MDMarra
    Oct 4, 2015 at 1:42

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