Change a user's primary group

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To change a user's primary group

  1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers.

  2. In the console tree, click Users.

    Where?

    • Active Directory Users and Computers/domain node/Users

    Or, click the folder that contains the user account.

  3. In the details pane, right-click the user you want to change, and then click Properties.

  4. On the Member of tab, click the group that you want to set as the user's primary group, and then click Set Primary Group.

Notes

  • To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Account Operators group, Domain Admins group, or the Enterprise Admins group in Active Directory, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure. For more information, see Default local groups, Default groups, and Using Run as.

  • To open Active Directory Users and Computers, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Active Directory Users and Computers.

  • The user's primary group applies only to users who log on to the network through Services for Macintosh or to who run POSIX-compliant applications. Unless you are using these services, there is no need to change the primary group from Domain Users, which is the default value.

  • Setting the user's primary group membership to a value other than Domain Users may adversely impact performance as all users in the domain are members of Domain Users. If the user's primary group is set to another group, it may cause the group membership to exceed the supported maximum number of members.

Information about functional differences

  • Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see Viewing Help on the Web.

See Also

Concepts

Working with MMC console files
Accounts for Macintosh clients
Services for Macintosh