Adding Local Admin & Applying Password

Question

I am new here and very new to PowerShell - I want to add a local admin user and also assign as password to that user in a txt file.

Below is my script, but it fails to set the password:

$Username = "steve"
$Password = Get-Content .\SecurePassword.txt | ConvertTo-SecureString

$group = "Administrators"

$adsi = [ADSI]"WinNT://$env:COMPUTERNAME"
$existing = $adsi.Children | where {$_.SchemaClassName -eq 'user' -and $_.Name -eq $Username }

if ($existing -eq $null) {

    Write-Host "Creating new local user $Username."
    & NET USER $Username $Password /add /y /expires:never

    Write-Host "Adding local user $Username to $group."
    & NET LOCALGROUP $group $Username /add

}
else {
    Write-Host "Setting password for existing local user $Username."
    $existing.SetPassword($Password)
}

Write-Host "Ensuring password for $Username never expires."
& WMIC USERACCOUNT WHERE "Name='$Username'" SET PasswordExpires=FALSE

This is the output:

PS C:\windows\System32> .\test.ps1
Creating new local user steve.
The command completed successfully.

Adding local user steve to Administrators.
The command completed successfully.

Ensuring password for steve never expires.
Updating property(s) of '\\DESKTOP-LVUFR6R\ROOT\CIMV2:Win32_UserAccount.Domain="DESKTOP-LVUFR6R",Name="steve"'
Property(s) update successful.

But it doesn't set the password.

Any help?

Answer 1

Point of note:

Try not to reinvent the wheel. Use the built-in featureset and the MS powershellgallery.com modules. Since PowerShell v3 there is a module for local user and group management.

Find-Module -Name '*local*Management'  

<#                                                                                
Version              Name                                Repository           Description                               -------              ----                                ----------           -----------                               3.0                  LocalUserManagement                 PSGallery            a module that performs various local u... 1.2.2                Saritasa.LocalManagement            PSGallery            Contains functions to control local co... 0.1.1                LocalAccountManagement              PSGallery            Manage local and remote user accounts ... 1.0                  STRemoteLocalGroupManagement        PSGallery            Manage local group membership on remot...
#>

[LocalUserManagement 3.0][1]



 Get-Command -Name '*local*user*' 

<#                                                                                      
CommandType     Name                                               Version    Source
-----------     ----                                               -------    ------
Cmdlet          Disable-LocalUser                                  1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Enable-LocalUser                                   1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Get-LocalUser                                      1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          New-LocalUser                                      1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Remove-LocalUser                                   1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Rename-LocalUser                                   1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Set-LocalUser                                      1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
#>

 Get-Command -Name '*local*group*'  

<#                                                                                    
CommandType     Name                                               Version    Source
-----------     ----                                               -------    ------
Cmdlet          Add-LocalGroupMember                               1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Get-LocalGroup                                     1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Get-LocalGroupMember                               1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          New-LocalGroup                                     1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Remove-LocalGroup                                  1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Remove-LocalGroupMember                            1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Rename-LocalGroup                                  1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
Cmdlet          Set-LocalGroup                                     1.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.LocalAccounts
#>

For what you are after, leverage Set-LocalUser

$Password = Read-Host -AsSecureString 
$UserAccount = Get-LocalUser -Name "User02" 
$UserAccount | Set-LocalUser -Password $Password

Since you say you are new, it's strongly advised that you spend some time getting ramped up, to limit/avoid, confusion, bad code, bad habits, errors, etc... Also never run code (especially destructive code, meaning stuff that changes your system/environment) you do not fully understand what it is doing, no matter where you get it from. If not, you can really cause major issues on your systems/environments.

Answer 2

Based on the script's logic, your set password method is never reached because the condition was never met. Either remove the else{} block or move the set password method up to the if{} block and see if that works for you.

$Username = "steve"
$Password = Get-Content .\SecurePassword.txt | ConvertTo-SecureString

$group = "Administrators"

$adsi = [ADSI]"WinNT://$env:COMPUTERNAME"
$existing = $adsi.Children | where {$_.SchemaClassName -eq 'user' -and $_.Name -eq $Username }

if ($existing -eq $null) {

    Write-Host "Creating new local user $Username."
    & NET USER $Username $Password /add /y /expires:never

    Write-Host "Adding local user $Username to $group."
    & NET LOCALGROUP $group $Username /add

    Write-Host "Setting password for existing local user $Username."
    $existing.SetPassword($Password)
} else {

# do something else that you want handled

}


Write-Host "Ensuring password for $Username never expires."
& WMIC USERACCOUNT WHERE "Name='$Username'" SET PasswordExpires=FALSE