Windows users and groups are a way to manage access to resources on a computer. Users can be added to groups, and the permissions for the group can be set to allow or deny access to specific resources, such as files, folders, and system settings.
There are several built-in groups in Windows, such as the Administrators group, which has full control over the computer, and the Users group, which has limited access. You can also create custom groups and add users to them.
However, as a sys administrator, you will often be working in the terminal session, and managing users and groups from the terminal can be hugely beneficial.
List Windows Users in PowerShell using Get-LocalUser Cmdlet.
The Get-LocalUser cmdlet is a PowerShell cmdlet retrieves the local user accounts on a computer. It returns a list of Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimInstance objects that represent the local user accounts.
By default, the cmdlet returns all local user accounts on the computer. Example:
Get-LocalUser
This should return details of the available user accounts as:
Name Enabled Description
---- ------- -----------
admin True
Administrator False Built-in account for administering the computer/domain
DefaultAccount False A user account managed by the system.
Guest False Built-in account for guest access to the computer/domain
WDAGUtilityAccount False A user account managed and used by the system for Windows....
You can also use the -Name parameter to specify a specific user account by name. For example, to get the local user account with the name "admin", you can use the following command:
Get-LocalUser -Name "admin"
Output:
Name Enabled Description
---- ------- -----------
admin True
The Get-LocalUser cmdlet has several other parameters that allow you to control the properties that are returned for each user account, such as FullName, Description, and PasswordLastSet. You can use these parameters to customize the output of the cmdlet.
For example, to list the names only of all local user accounts, you can use the following command:
Get-LocalUser | Select-Object Name
Output:
Name
----
admin
Administrator
DefaultAccount
Guest
WDAGUtilityAccount
List Users in PowerShell Using net Command
You can also use the net command to list users and groups. To list all users, you can use the following command:
net user
Output:
User accounts for \\SERVER
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
admin Administrator DefaultAccount
Guest WDAGUtilityAccount
The command completed successfully.
List Users in PowerShell Using Get-WmiObject Cmdlet
You can also use the Get-WmiObject cmdlet to list users and groups. To list all users, you can use the following command:
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_UserAccount
Output:
AccountType : 512
Caption : SERVER\admin
Domain : SERVER
SID : S-1-5-21-697903660-3891131852-320673488-1001
FullName :
Name : admin
AccountType : 512
Caption : SERVER\Administrator
Domain : SERVER
SID : S-1-5-21-697903660-3891131852-320673488-500
FullName :
Name : Administrator
AccountType : 512
Caption : SERVER\DefaultAccount
Domain : SERVER
SID : S-1-5-21-697903660-3891131852-320673488-503
FullName :
Name : DefaultAccount
AccountType : 512
Caption : SERVER\Guest
Domain : SERVER
SID : S-1-5-21-697903660-3891131852-320673488-501
FullName :
Name : Guest
AccountType : 512
Caption : SERVER\WDAGUtilityAccount
Domain : SERVER
SID : S-1-5-21-697903660-3891131852-320673488-504
FullName :
Name : WDAGUtilityAccount
List Groups in PowerShell using Get-LocalGroup Cmdlet
The Get-LocalGroup cmdlet is a PowerShell cmdlet retrieves the local groups on a computer. It returns a list of Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimInstance objects that represent the local groups.
Example:
Get-LocalGroup
Output:
Name Description
---- -----------
docker-users Users of Docker Desktop
Access Control Assistance Operators Members of this group can remotely query authorization..
Administrators Administrators have complete and unrestricted access...
Backup Operators Backup Operators can override security restrictions for..
Cryptographic Operators Members are authorized to perform cryptographic...
Device Owners Members of this group can change system-wide settings.
Distributed COM Users Members are allowed to launch, activate and use...
Event Log Readers Members of this group can read event logs from local...
Guests Guests have the same access as members of the Users group
Hyper-V Administrators Members of this group have complete and unrestricted...
IIS_IUSRS Built-in group used by Internet Information Services.
Network Configuration Operators Members in this group can have some administrative...
Performance Log Users Members of this group may schedule logging of performance
Performance Monitor Users Members of this group can access performance counter data
Power Users Power Users are included for backwards compatibility and.
Remote Desktop Users Members in this group are granted the right to logon...
Remote Management Users Members of this group can access WMI resources over...
Replicator Supports file replication in a domain
System Managed Accounts Group Members of this group are managed by the system.
Users Users are prevented from making accidental or...
You can also use the -Name parameter to specify a specific group by name. For example, to get the local group with the name "Administrators", you can use the following command:
Get-LocalGroup -Name "Power Users"
Output:
Name Description
---- -----------
Power Users Power Users are included for backwards compatibility and possess limited administrative powers
The Get-LocalGroup cmdlet has several other parameters that allow you to control the properties returned for each group, such as Description, GroupType, and SID. You can use these parameters to customize the output of the cmdlet.
For example, to list the names of all local groups, you can use the following command:
Get-LocalGroup | Select-Object Name
Output:
Name
----
docker-users
Access Control Assistance Operators
Administrators
Backup Operators
Cryptographic Operators
Device Owners
Distributed COM Users
Event Log Readers
Guests
Hyper-V Administrators
IIS_IUSRS
Network Configuration Operators
Performance Log Users
Performance Monitor Users
Power Users
Remote Desktop Users
Remote Management Users
Replicator
System Managed Accounts Group
Users
List Groups in PowerShell Using Get-WmiObject Cmdlet
We can also list local groups using the Get-WmiObject cmdlet as shown:
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Group
Output:
Caption Domain Name SID
------- ------ ---- ---
SERVER\Access Control Assistance Operators SERVER Access Control Assistance Operators S-1-5-32-579
SERVER\Administrators SERVER Administrators S-1-5-32-544
SERVER\Backup Operators SERVER Backup Operators S-1-5-32-551
SERVER\Cryptographic Operators SERVER Cryptographic Operators S-1-5-32-569
SERVER\Device Owners SERVER Device Owners S-1-5-32-583
SERVER\Distributed COM Users SERVER Distributed COM Users S-1-5-32-562
SERVER\Event Log Readers SERVER Event Log Readers S-1-5-32-573
SERVER\Guests SERVER Guests S-1-5-32-546
SERVER\Hyper-V Administrators SERVER Hyper-V Administrators S-1-5-32-578
SERVER\IIS_IUSRS SERVER IIS_IUSRS S-1-5-32-568
SERVER\Network Configuration Operators SERVER Network Configuration Operators S-1-5-32-556
SERVER\Performance Log Users SERVER Performance Log Users S-1-5-32-559
SERVER\Performance Monitor Users SERVER Performance Monitor Users S-1-5-32-558
SERVER\Power Users SERVER Power Users S-1-5-32-547
SERVER\Remote Desktop Users SERVER Remote Desktop Users S-1-5-32-555
SERVER\Remote Management Users SERVER Remote Management Users S-1-5-32-580
SERVER\Replicator SERVER Replicator S-1-5-32-552
SERVER\System Managed Accounts Group SERVER System Managed Accounts Group S-1-5-32-581
SERVER\Users SERVER Users S-1-5-32-545
SERVER\docker-users SERVER docker-users S-1-5-21-697903660-3891131852-320673488-1002
List Local Groups in PowerShell Using net Command
We can also list local groups using the net command as shown:
net localgroup
Output:
Aliases for \\SERVER
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Access Control Assistance Operators
*Administrators
*Backup Operators
*Cryptographic Operators
*Device Owners
*Distributed COM Users
*docker-users
*Event Log Readers
*Guests
*Hyper-V Administrators
*IIS_IUSRS
*Network Configuration Operators
*Performance Log Users
*Performance Monitor Users
*Power Users
*Remote Desktop Users
*Remote Management Users
*Replicator
*System Managed Accounts Group
*Users
The command completed successfully.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, you discovered various methods to get a list of all local users and groups on a Windows system using PowerShell.
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