Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Windows Server VMs can't change administrator password




I'm tasked with changing the passwords for the local administrator accounts on two virtual machines running on a Windows Server 2008 R2 server. I have to remote into the VMs and the server they run on, the machine is not local.



I have the current passwords, and I can log in like normal. I can get to the ctrl-alt-del password change screen just fine for both VMs.



I put in the old password and repeat the new passwords correctly.



And the machine tells me "Access is denied". On both VMs.



I've looked around for people with similar problems, but the bulk of topics I found were about people who either couldn't hit ctrl-alt-del using a remote desktop, or people who had forgotten their current password.




From what I'm seeing, this message comes up when the UAC detects that your account doesn't have the authority to change the password. Which doesn't make sense since I'm logged in as the account I want to change, and it's the local administrator account.



The only thing I can think of is that I'm not allowed to change passwords remotely, even if logged into the local administrator account. Either that, or it's because its a VM. Maybe a combination of the two.



I've gone into the computer manager, and I think I can reset the password from there, but it gives me a warning message that changing it from this screen could cause an "irreversible loss of data", and that it's best to change it from the ctrl-alt-del screen.



Edit: It turns out that the account had password changing disabled. I had go to this screen and uncheck the box.



To get here, right click to open the properties menu on the administrator account from the computer management window.


Answer




It turns out that the account had password changing disabled. I had go to this screen and uncheck the box.



To get here, right click to open the properties menu on the administrator account from the computer management window.


No comments:

Post a Comment

linux - How to SSH to ec2 instance in VPC private subnet via NAT server

I have created a VPC in aws with a public subnet and a private subnet. The private subnet does not have direct access to external network. S...