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New-LocalUser

  • Reference
Module:
Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts

Creates a local user account.

Syntax

New-LocalUser
   [-AccountExpires <DateTime>]
   [-AccountNeverExpires]
   [-Description <String>]
   [-Disabled]
   [-FullName <String>]
   [-Name] <String>
   -Password <SecureString>
   [-PasswordNeverExpires]
   [-UserMayNotChangePassword]
   [-WhatIf]
   [-Confirm]
   [<CommonParameters>]
New-LocalUser
   [-AccountExpires <DateTime>]
   [-AccountNeverExpires]
   [-Description <String>]
   [-Disabled]
   [-FullName <String>]
   [-Name] <String>
   [-NoPassword]
   [-UserMayNotChangePassword]
   [-WhatIf]
   [-Confirm]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The New-LocalUser cmdlet creates a local user account. This cmdlet creates a local user account.

Note

The Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts module isn't available in 32-bit PowerShell on a 64-bit system.

Examples

Example 1: Create a user account

New-LocalUser -Name 'User02' -Description 'Description of this account.' -NoPassword

Name    Enabled  Description
----    -------  -----------
User02  True     Description of this account.

This command creates a local user account and doesn't specify the AccountExpires or Password parameters. The account doesn't expire or have a password.

Example 2: Create a user account that has a password

$Password = Read-Host -AsSecureString
$params = @{
    Name        = 'User03'
    Password    = $Password
    FullName    = 'Third User'
    Description = 'Description of this account.'
}
New-LocalUser @params

Name    Enabled  Description
----    -------  -----------
User03  True     Description of this account.

The first command uses the Read-Host cmdlet to prompts you for a password. The command stores the password as a secure string in the $Password variable.

The second command creates a local user account and sets the new account's password to the secure string stored in $Password. The command specifies a user name, full name, and description for the user account.

Parameters

-AccountExpires

Specifies when the user account expires. You can use the Get-Date cmdlet to get a DateTime object. If you don't specify this parameter, the account doesn't expire.

Type:DateTime
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-AccountNeverExpires

Indicates that the account doesn't expire.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Confirm

Prompts you for confirmation before running the cmdlet.

Type:SwitchParameter
Aliases:cf
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Description

Specifies a comment for the user account. The maximum length is 48 characters.

Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Disabled

Indicates that this cmdlet creates the user account as disabled.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-FullName

Specifies the full name for the user account. The full name differs from the user name of the user account.

Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Name

Specifies the user name for the user account.

A user name can contain up to 20 uppercase characters or lowercase characters. A user name can't contain the following characters:

", /, \, [, ], :, ;, |, =, ,, +, *, ?, <, >, @

A user name can't consist only of periods . or spaces.

Type:String
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-NoPassword

Indicates that the user account doesn't have a password.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Password

Specifies a password for the user account. You can use Read-Host -AsSecureString, Get-Credential, or ConvertTo-SecureString to create a SecureString object for the password.

If you omit the Password and NoPassword parameters, New-LocalUser prompts you for the new user's password.

Type:SecureString
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-PasswordNeverExpires

Indicates whether the new user's password expires.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-UserMayNotChangePassword

Indicates that the user can't change the password on the user account.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-WhatIf

Shows what would happen if the cmdlet runs. The cmdlet isn't run.

Type:SwitchParameter
Aliases:wi
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

Inputs

String

You can pipe a string to this cmdlet.

DateTime

You can pipe a DateTime object to this cmdlet.

Boolean

You can pipe a boolean value to this cmdlet.

SecureString

You can pipe a secure string to this cmdlet.

Outputs

System.Management.Automation.SecurityAccountsManager.LocalUser

This cmdlet returns a LocalUser object representing the created user account.

Notes

Windows PowerShell includes the following aliases for New-LocalUser:

  • nlu

A user name can't be identical to any other user name or group name on the computer. A user name can't consist only of periods . or spaces. A user name can contain up to 20 uppercase characters or lowercase characters. A user name can't contain the following characters:

", /, \, [, ], :, ;, |, =, ,, +, *, ?, <, >, @

A password can contain up to 127 characters.

The PrincipalSource property is a property on LocalUser, LocalGroup, and LocalPrincipal objects that describes the source of the object. The possible sources are as follows:

  • Local
  • Active Directory
  • AzureAD
  • MicrosoftAccount

Note

PrincipalSource is supported only by Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, and later versions of the Windows operating system. For earlier versions, the property is blank.