Accessing workgroup computer using lusrmgr.msc

Question

I have a workgroup here of multiple computers running different OSes Windows XP pro, Windows Vista pro, and Windows 7 pro.

When I use my laptop and try connecting using

lusrmgr.msc /computer=computername 

from my laptop running windows 7 pro I'm granted access.

When I try the same command from my desktop running windows 7 pro I get access denied. The accounts I created on all of the computers are exactly the same with the same passwords and they're all joined to the "WORKGROUP" workgroup.

Does anybody know why I'd get an access denied?

Answer 1

By default, in Windows 7 (and Vista), when using a local account (as opposed to a domain account) to connect remotely, the access token (on the "server" side) is filtered -- that is, like User Account Control, the Administrators group is removed, and you will find that anything requiring admin privilege won't work (you'll get an Access Denied error).

This behaviour can be changed, fortunately. In the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System , change or set the value LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy to 1 (REG_DWORD). See Description of User Account Control and remote restrictions in Windows Vista . You may have to reboot before this takes effect.

I've done this to every computer I use which has Windows 7, it makes various remote admin things work correctly as they did before in XP, W2K3S, etc.