How to add a domain user to the local admin group remotely?

Question

I need to add a domain user in the local administrator group remotly and I have to the local admin password

Answer 1

psexec will do it remotely combined with 'net localgroup' command.

from command line:

psexec \\remotename -u username -p pwd net localgroup Administrators "domain\user" /add

you can also then batch that or use some scripting to apply to a group of machines. or you could always use powershell.

Answer 2

Another option - you can open up Local Users and Groups for the remote computer using this command:

lusrmgr.msc /computer=computername 

Answer 3

You can add a user to a group remotely by using the Group Policy Management Console. I would do the following:

• Create an OU for the hosts that will have the user placed in the local group
• Load the Group Policy Management Console
• Locate the OU you created above and create a new group policy (the arrow points to what would be an OU) by right mouse clicking on the OU folder and select "create a GPO in this domain and link it here"

• Name it something that makes sense to you
• right mouse and choose edit
• Click down into the policy Windows Settings->Security Settings->Restricted Groups

• Add a group called Administrators (This is the group on the remote machine)
• Next to the "members in this group" click add
• Add domain admins to the group first
• Add the group or person you want to add second
• Click ok
• Move the host into the OU you created above
• Log in to the host and run gpupdate
• Check the local groups, the person or group you specified should be in there.

Answer 4

If you're looking for a one-off method, you can also open the remote computer in Computer Management, click on Local Users and Groups -> Groups -> Administrators. Then add the domain group there.

This is really only practical for a few workstations. Otherwise Group Policy (the method Tom mentioned, or using Group Policy Preferences) is preferred.

Answer 5

You can also do it by "simply" using groups.

Create a domain group local_admin , then make it a member of the computers local administrators group.

Then its a simple matter of making the domain user account a member of the domain local_admin group

Since we use pre-configured templates for our company installations we already have this configured before a user ever gets his PC. Giving us a simple way to give a specific user or group local administrative privileges on all our computers domain computers