Problem creating a new user in Windows 7

9

2

I try to add a new user from User Accounts in the control panel.

I click the Add button, and in the wizard that pops up I write a username, and let the domain name stand blank since this should be a local user. Then I click next.

I choose standard user on this page (note that the problem occurs regardless of my choice on this page) and click Finish.

Then I get the error message:

The user MACHINENAME\USERNAME could not be granted Standard user access because MACHINENAME\USERNAME does not exist.

So I'm basically unable to create any local users on my machine.

Any ideas?

Øyvind Bråthen

Posted 2011-06-01T06:30:11.187

Reputation: 219

Answers

9

Try running the following command in cmd: net user username /add That should then create a user. You can then edit this user though the control panel.

soandos

Posted 2011-06-01T06:30:11.187

Reputation: 22 744

This worked perfectly. Any idea why this does not work from User accounts? It quite useless to have a Add function that fails because the user you try to create does not already exist. – Øyvind Bråthen – 2011-06-01T07:12:58.857

I have not the faintest idea, sorry. – soandos – 2011-06-01T07:15:20.977

3

@Øyvind: While searching for the error message I found this article which states: "This behavior can occur because the Add New User Wizard is used to add existing domain users to local groups. It cannot be used to create new local user accounts". It sounds like your case (even though it's for XP), because you seem to be on a domain as well.

– efotinis – 2011-06-01T07:49:44.750

2@efotinis - That's seems to be exactly the same. So it's because the user name I have entered is not a valid domain user then. Thanks for sharing :) – Øyvind Bråthen – 2011-06-01T07:54:04.937

4

If you prefer a GUI for this, on the same "Manage User Accounts" control panel, switch to the "Advanced" tab and click the Advanced button under "Advanced user management"

iPaulo

Posted 2011-06-01T06:30:11.187

Reputation: 299

3

  1. Click "Start".

  2. Type "cmd" into the Search box.

  3. Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
    OR
    Click "Run as Administrator".

  4. Type the following commands and press Enter after each of them:

    net users
net user "john_smith" Access22 /add
net localgroup administrators "john_smith" /add

The first command will display all existing account names. Make sure that you see "Administrator".

The second command will create an account called "john_smith" with a password "Access22". The third command will make "john_smith" an administrator.

Luft Gekuhlt

Posted 2011-06-01T06:30:11.187

Reputation: 31

This is the answer that got me out of a pickle! Thank you! – degenerate – 2016-07-01T14:25:49.410

Asked: 2011-06-01T06:30:11.187

Viewed: 27 689 times

Active: 2013-12-17T18:32:55.903