The Net User command creates or changes user accounts in the Windows Server 2008 environment. This command has many options and therefore uses. To display a user’s information, use this form:
net user <i>username</i>
To update user information, use this form:
net user [<i>username</i> [<i>password</i> | *] [<i>options</i>]] [/domain]
To add a new user, use this form:
net user <i>username</i> [<i>password</i> | *] /add [<i>options</i>] [/domain]
To delete a user, use this form:
net user <i>username</i> /delete [/domain]
Most of the parameters for this command are straightforward. However, the options parameters can have a variety of different settings.
| Options | Description |
|---|---|
| /ACTIVE:{YES | NO} | Activates or deactivates the account. If the account is not active, the user can’t access the server. The default is YES. |
| /COMMENT:"text" | Provides a descriptive comment about the user’s account (maximum of 48 characters). Enclose the text in quotation marks. |
| /COUNTRYCODE:nnn | Uses the operating system country code to implement the specified language files for a user’s help and error messages. A value of 0 signifies the default country code. |
| /EXPIRES:{date | NEVER} | Causes the account to expire if date is set. NEVER sets no time limit on the account. An expiration date is in the form mm/dd/yy or dd/mm/yy, depending on the country code. Months can be a number, spelled out, or abbreviated with three letters. The year can be two or four numbers. Use slashes (/), not spaces, to separate parts of the date. |
| /FULLNAME:" name" | Is a user’s full name (rather than a username). Enclose the name in quotation marks. |
| /HOMEDIR:pathname | Sets the path for the user’s home directory. The path must exist. |
| /PASSWORDCHG:{YES | NO} | Specifies whether users can change their own passwords. The default is YES. |
| /PASSWORDREQ:{YES | NO} | Specifies whether a user account must have a password. The default is YES. |
| /PROFILEPATH[:path] | Sets a path for the user’s logon profile. |
| /SCRIPTPATH:pathname | Is the location of the user’s logon script. |
| /TIMES:{times | ALL} | Is the logon hours. TIMES is expressed as day[-day][,day[-day]],time[-time] [,time[-time]], limited to 1-hour increments. Days can be spelled out or abbreviated. Hours can be 12- or 24-hour notation. For 12-hour notation, use am or pm (without periods) or a.m. or p.m. ALL means a user can always log on, and a blank value means a user can never log on. Separate day and time entries with a comma, and separate multiple day and time entries with a semicolon. |
| /USERCOMMENT:"text" | Lets an administrator add or change the User Comment for the account. |
| /WORKSTATIONS: | Lists as many as eight computers from which a user {ComputerName[,...] | *} can log on to the network. If /WORKSTATIONS has no list or if the list is *, the user can log on from any computer. |
To display information for a particular user, use the command like this:
C:>net user Doug
To add a user account for Theodore Cleaver with the username Beaver, use this command:
C:>net user Beaver /add /fullname:"Theodore Cleaver"
