The Problem:
I cannot access a Domain Computers
-accesible network share by a process running on Windows XP as a SYSTEM
account.
I've got a 2008R2 domain, a 2003R2 file server and a set of clients.
On the file server, I've made a share accessible by the Domain Computers
group. The share is supposed to hold a read-only repository of files (Wpkg) to be accessed from domain workstations by a system service (Wpkg-GP) run by SYSTEM
user.
Now the problem is that, while it works perfectly on Windows 7, it completely fails on Windows XP. It seems, that for some reason the SYSTEM
account on Windows XP cannot authenticate as a computer. See more in details.
The Question:
What do I do wrong?
Is it perhaps a natural behaviour of Windows XP system? If so, can it be changed or fixed? Or is there any other way to achieve a scenario, in which a network share would be visible to the SYSTEM
user on computers, without being accessible by the users?
The Details:
- The
Domain Computers
group has received permissions both for the files and for the share - I have checked higher permissions, all the way from
Read
toFull Controll
- I have tested the issue with fresh, out-of-the-box operating systems installed on VBox
Since the problem was reported by application, I first began to verify actual SYSTEM
user rights. On both Windows versions (7 and XP) I have opened an elevated cmd
session impersonating SYSTEM
account (using PsExec -s -i cmd.exe
) and attempted to manually mount the network share :
net use x: \\myfs.mydomain.com\Wpkg
On Windows 7, the drive has been mounted without demur. But on Windows XP the command responded with information about incorrect password and a prompt for new one:
[Windows XP]
Password for \\myfs.mydomain.com\Wpkg is incorrect.
Please enter password for "myfs.mydomain.com": _
(please note that this is only a translation, an official english locale may sound differently)