I have inherited a 20-seat Windows XP Pro network. The previous admin unfortunately didn't seem to care about security, so all accounts use the company name as the password(!). I have set up a PDC with Samba (Linux). Next, I want to implement a password policy so all domain accounts at least have their own (secret) passwords. That much I can do easily. The hard part is, I still need to support these accounts.
I know I can unlock any computer with an Administrator account, but I don't want users to stay logged in. (I do most upgrades/in-depth support after hours.) I can always log in under my own account, and this will work for many things, but sometimes I need to troubleshoot/fix a problem with a specific user's profile, so I need to log in as that user.
So, my question is: In Windows XP, is there a way to log in as any arbitrary (domain) user without knowing the password? My own account has Administrator privs on all machines, and I maintain a separate Domain Admin account as well.
For the Linux gurus out there, the Linux analogue of what I want to do would be "su -l the_user", which logs in as "the_user", and does not prompt for a password if you are the superuser (root).
Thanks for any suggestions!
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by: houssam_balloutPosted on 2009-09-12 at 09:44:10ID: 25317034
Well, Linux differs from windows in the user that manage users.
in Linux, you can make su -user to get the privileges as that user, while in XP you can't. You must had the password to logon to that account before you can proceed.
So, I recommend that you get the password for that user to fix the user's problems in his/her profile.
Or you can use programs, like: team viewer, real vnc, to login to the user while that user is already logged in