How to Create Local Users in Windows Using PowerShell?

In this tutorial, I will explain how to create local user accounts in Windows using PowerShell. PowerShell provides a quick and easy way to automate the process of creating new users. I recently needed to set up several new employee accounts on Windows PCs in our office, so I used PowerShell to speed things up.

Note: I used Windows PowerShell ISE to execute all the PowerShell scripts.

Table of Contents

Create a New Local User with New-LocalUser in PowerShell

The simplest way to create a new local user in Windows in PowerShell is with the New-LocalUser cmdlet. Here’s an example of creating a new user named “John Smith”:

New-LocalUser -Name "John Smith" -Description "Sales Associate" -NoPassword

This creates a new local user account named “John Smith” with the description “Sales Associate”. The -NoPassword switch specifies that no password is required for the account initially.

You can also specify a password for the new account:

$Password = Read-Host -AsSecureString
New-LocalUser -Name "Amy Johnson" -Password $Password -FullName "Amy Johnson" -Description "Marketing Manager"

In this example, we first prompt for the password using Read-Host and store it as a secure string in the $Password variable. Then we provide the password when calling New-LocalUser along with the full name and description for the account.

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Add a User to a Local Group using PowerShell

When you create a new local user, you may want to add them to an existing local group to grant the appropriate permissions. You can do this with the Add-LocalGroupMember cmdlet:

Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Users" -Member "John Smith"

This adds the local user “John Smith” to the local “Users” group.

Modify Local User Properties in PowerShell

After creating a local user, you can modify properties like the full name, description, password, and more using the Set-LocalUser cmdlet. For example:

Set-LocalUser -Name "John Smith" -FullName "John W. Smith" -Description "Sales Lead"

This updates the full name and description for the user “John Smith”.

To change the password for a local user:

$NewPassword = Read-Host -AsSecureString
Set-LocalUser -Name "Amy Johnson" -Password $NewPassword

This prompts for a new password and updates the password for the user “Amy Johnson”.

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Check if a Local User Exists in PowerShell

Before attempting to create a new local user, you may want to check if a user with that username already exists to avoid an error. Here’s an example and the complete PowerShell script:

$UserName = "John Smith"
if (Get-LocalUser | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq $UserName}) {
    Write-Host "The user $UserName already exists."
} else {
    Write-Host "The user $UserName does not exist."
    New-LocalUser -Name $UserName -NoPassword
}

This script checks if a local user named “John Smith” exists. If so, it outputs a message saying the user already exists. If not, it creates the new user.

Here is the exact output in the screenshot below:

Check if a Local User Exists in PowerShell

Remove a Local User using PowerShell

To remove a local user account that is no longer needed, use the Remove-LocalUser cmdlet in PowerShell:

Remove-LocalUser -Name "Amy Johnson"

This deletes the local user account named “Amy Johnson”. Note that you cannot remove an account that is currently logged in.

Conclusion

PowerShell provides a variety of cmdlets for managing local users in Windows. You can easily create new users, modify user properties, add users to groups, check if users exist, and remove users as needed. Using PowerShell to automate these tasks can save a lot of time compared to using the GUI, especially when you need to create multiple accounts.

The key cmdlets to remember are:

New-LocalUser – Create a new local user account
Set-LocalUser – Modify properties of a local user
Add-LocalGroupMember – Add a user to a local group
Get-LocalUser – List local users and check if a user exists
Remove-LocalUser – Delete a local user account

I hope this tutorial helps you understand how to create and manage local Windows users with PowerShell. Let me know if you have any other questions in the comment below: