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How to Create a New Domain User in Windows Server 2003?

By Codrut Nistor

Posted in How-to, Windows-server-2003

There are two types of user accounts in a client server environment. The first user account type is Local User Account which is authenticated from the local computer on which it is created. The second type of user account is Domain User Account which gets authenticated from the domain controller and the users can log on to the domain with the credentials of a domain user account using any computer which is a member of active directory domain. Process of creating a domain user account is more or less similar to the process of creating a local user account however with some basic differences. You can create a domain user account by following the steps given below:

  1. Log on to the domain controller using the account that has administrative privileges.
  2. Click on Start button.
  3. From the start menu go to Administrative Tools and from the submenu select Active Directory Users and Computers.
  4. On the opened snap in expand the domain name which is TESTDOMAIN.COM in this case.
  5. From the list right click on Users container and from the context menu go to New to get a submenu.
  6. From the submenu select User.
  7. On New Object-User box populate the required fields with appropriate information that is first name of the user in First Name text box last name of the user in Last Name text box (you may leave Initials text box blank if you want). You will find that as you populate the above fields Full Name text box is automatically populated according to the information you have provided.
  8. In the User logon name text box type the logon name that you want to assign for the user. Make sure that you do NOT provide any blank spaces while providing user logon name. Also no special characters should be provided except period (.). You will see that User logon name (pre-Windows 2000) text box is automatically populated.
  9. Once above information is provided click on Next button to proceed.
  10. On the next window provide the password and confirm it by retyping the same password in the respective text box and click on Next button. (Optionally you can configure other options by checking or unchecking the self-explanatory checkboxes provided below the password fields as per your requirements before clicking on Next button.)
  11. On the final page carefully go through the summary and click on Finish button to create a new domain user account.

More Info:

Domain user cannot log on to the domain controller interactively that is directly sitting in front of the domain controller and typing domain user account’s user name and password on its console. A domain user can only use a domain client computer to log on by providing its credentials which are then authenticated from domain controller.