How to create a local windows user account using remote powershell?

Question

tried creating users with powershel.This worked fine for local machine. But how to create a local user account in a remote machine using remote powershell?

The script localwindows.ps1 is

$comp = [adsi]'WinNT://machinename,computer';
$user = $comp.Create('User', 'account4');
$user.SetPassword('change,password.10');
$user.SetInfo();

I tried the same thing through C# :

            PSCredential credential = new PSCredential(userName, securePassword);
            WSManConnectionInfo connectionInfo = new WSManConnectionInfo(false, "machinename", 5985, "/wsman", shellUri, credential);
            using (Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(connectionInfo))
            {

                runspace.Open();
                 String file = "C:\\localwindows.ps1";
                 Pipeline pipeline = runspace.CreatePipeline();
                 pipeline.Commands.AddScript(System.IO.File.ReadAllText(file));                    
                 pipeline.Commands.Add("Out-String");

                 // execute the script 
                 Collection<PSObject> results = pipeline.Invoke();
              }  

This also works fine locally .But for remote computer its throwing exception "create :Access is denied ".

Answer 1

I was able to create a local user account in a remote computer using the following command :

Invoke-Command -ComputerName machineName -filepath c:\script.ps1 -credential  $getcredential

The script is

$comp = [adsi]'WinNT://localhost,computer';
$user = $comp.Create('User', 'account11');
$user.SetPassword('change,password.10');
$user.SetInfo();
$user

Answer 2

Use the ADSI WinNT provider:

$username = "foo"
$password = "bar"
$computer = "hostname"

$prov = [adsi]"WinNT://$computer"
$user = $prov.Create("User", $username)
$user.SetPassword($password)
$user.SetInfo()

Answer 3

The powershell script invoke-Command executes any powershell script on a remote computer. You didn't say just how you use powershell to create the user, but as an example you write:

invoke-command -computername myserver {[ADSI]$server="WinNT://localhost";$HD=$server.Create("User","HD");$HD.SetPassword("H3lpD3>K");$HD.SetInfo()}

You can also execute your local powershell script remotely by using the -filepath parameter:

Invoke-Command -ComputerName MyRemoteServer -filepath c:\Scripts\DaScript.ps1

To enable remote commands you will have to enable winrm on the remote computer. you can do this by running

winrm quickconfig

On the remote computer.

Answer 4

If you have a PowerShell script to create a local user account locally on a server, then just simply use PSExec to run it on remote machines with administrative account

Answer 5

Invoke-Command works but you can also use Enter-PSSession -Computer to submit commands locally on a remote machine. The following will prompt the user for the username and add them to the local Administrators group with no password:

$user = read-host 'What is the name of the local user you would like to add?'
net user /add $user
net localgroup Administrators /add $user

Answer 6

I don't know if the question is still relevant, but I have tried this out and found what needs to be fixed. When you create the directory entry object, use the following code

$objOu = New-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry("WinNT://$computer", $admin, $adminPass, "Secure")

The rest is the same.