How To Add An User To Windows Server [2008, 2012 & 2016]

The process is similar, regardless of the Windows Server version

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Key notes

  • Every Windows Server user needs his own user account.
  • In order to add an user to Windows Server, you need to be logged in on an account with administrative privileges.
  • New users can be easily added via Administrative Tools.
How to add user Windows Server - laptop on desk

If you want to know how to add a user to your Windows server machine, you don’t need to search for the answer anymore. You will find it on this page.

It is very important that you understand that every user that uses your Windows server needs to have a user account. You will need to create a new domain user account.

In this how-to guide, we will explore this subject entirely, and we will offer you step by step instructions to achieve this easily.

All you need to do is to carefully follow the steps in the order they were written. This will ensure that you will not change any settings that may affect the way your machine operates.


How can I add an user to Windows Server?

Note: You will need to be logged in to an account with administrator privileges to be able to create new users on any version of Windows Server.

Windows Server 2008

  1. Press the Start button -> select Administrative Tools -> Active Directory Users and Computers.
  2. Right-click the domain on which you want to create the user on -> choose New -> User.
  3. Type the user‘s name in the respective boxes.
  4. Choose a user logon name (needs to be unique in the respective domain).
  5. Type the required password twice correctly.
  6. Choose any options that you want to apply to the password.
  7. Click Next -> verify that the entire set of information is correct.

Windows Server 2012 and 2016


Note: Even though the specific steps for these two versions of Windows Server (2012 and 2016) will vary, the general idea is the same.

  1. Press the Win+X keys on your keyboard -> choose Computer Management.
  2. Click the Local Users and Groups option from the left-side menu to expand it.
  3. Right-click the Users folder -> choose New User.
  4. Fill out the form with the appropriate name and description.
  5. If you want the newly created account to have a password that never expires, you should click the respective box. If not, the password will expire after some time, and it will need to be reset.
  6. Click the Create button
  7.  If you want to add this account to the Admin group -> click on the Groups folder – double-click Administrators from the list -> click Add -> add the name of the account you created -> click Apply -> Ok.

In today’s how-to guide we explored the best method to add new users to a Windows Server.

Please make sure to follow the steps presented in this list carefully in order to avoid causing any issue on your Windows Server.

We would love to know if this guide has proven useful to you. You can let us know by leaving the comment in the section found below this article.

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