Local and Built-In Groups in Windows

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Groups in windows is a compilation and collection of user accounts. All members of a group can be assigned rights and permission at the same time on a computer network. Any member added to the group automatically gets the rights and permission of the group. Only users with administrative rights can create groups.

The groups are created to simplify account administration. An administrator can assign rights and permission to individual users if the network is small. It is very difficult to assign rights and permission to a large number of users. The groups are created on the basis of common functionality or location.

Important Links:

Local group

A local group is a collection of user accounts on a computer. The members of local groups have permission to the resources on the computer on which the group is created. Windows creates a local group in the local security database. It can not be created on the domain controller. Local groups cannot be a member of any other group.

Creating Local Groups

The following procedure is used to create local groups:

Expand Local Users and Groups in the Computer Management window.
Click the Group folder.
Right-click Groups and click New Group. The New Group dialog box appears with the following options:

Option	Description
Group Name	A unique name for the local group. It is a compulsory entry. It may consist of up to 256 characters.
Description	A description of the group
Add	Adds a user to the list of members
Remove	Removes a user from the list of members
Create	Creates the group
Close	Closes the new group dialog box

Enter the appropriate information and click Create.

Deleting Local Group

The computer management window is used to delete local groups. When a group is deleted, only the group, permission, and rights of the group are deleted. It does not delete the user account of the group.

Right-click on the group and click Delete.

Adding Members to a Group

The following procedure is used to add a member to a group:

Start Computer Management.
Expand Local Users and Groups.
Click Group and then the detail panes.
Right-click the appropriate group and click Properties.
Click Add in the properties dialog box. The selected users or group dialog box appears.
Ensure that the computer on which you created the group is selected in the look-in list.
Select the user account that is to be added to the group in the Name box.
Click Add.

Practical:

Create two local groups You and Me. Add members to both groups.

Log on to an administrator.
Click Start> Programs> Administrator tools> Computer Management.
Expand Local Users and Groups and click Group. The Computer Management displays a list of current and built-in local groups in the detail panes.
Right-click Groups and click New Group. The New Group dialog box will appear.
Type “you” in the Group Name box and “access to customer files” in the Description box.
Click Add. The Select Users or Groups dialog box appears.
Hold the Ctrl key and select user1 and user3.
Click Add. User1 and user3 will appear in the box below Add button.
Click OK. The user1 and user3 are listed in the member box.
Click Create. Windows will create a group and add it to the list of users and groups.
Repeat steps 4-10 to create a group “Me”.

Add and Remove Members from Local Group

Double click “You” in the detail pane of Computer Management. The Properties dialog box will appear. The user2 and user4 will appear in the Members box.
Click Add to add a member to the group. The select users or groups dialog box will appear.
Select user3 in the Name box.
Click Add and click OK. The “You” properties dialog box will display user2, user3, and user4 in the Member box.
Select user4 and click Remove. The user4 will disappear from the Member box. It still exists as a local user account but it is not a member of the “you” group.
Click OK.

Renaming Groups

Start Computer Management and expand local users and groups
Expand the Group folder.
Right, click the group “You” and select rename.
Rename the group to “new” and press Enter.

Deleting a Group

Right, click the group “New” in the Computer Management details pane.
Click Delete. A local user and groups dialog box appear to confirm the deletion.
Click Yes. The group “New” will disappear. The members of the group are not deleted. User2 and User3 are still local user accounts.
Close Computer Management.

Built-in Groups in Windows

All computers running windows professional have built-in local groups. The built-in local groups give rights to perform tasks on a single computer such as:

Backing up and restoring files
Changing the system time
Administering system resources

Windows place a built-in local group folder in computer management.

Group	Description
Users	It can perform tasks according to the given rights and can access permitted resources
Administrators	It can perform all administrative tasks.
Guests	It can perform tasks according to the given rights and can access permitted resources. No permanent changes can be made to the local environment.
Back up operator	Use windows backup to backup and restore all computers running windows
Replicator	To be used by the directory replicated service

Built-in System Groups in Windows

Built-in system groups exist on all computers running windows. System group does not have specific membership that cannot be modified. They can represent different users at different times depending on how users gain access to the group.

They are available for the user when rights and permission to resources are assigned.

Group	Description
Everyone	All local and remote uses. Any rights or permission can be assigned to this group. It contains user accounts other than those created by an administrator.
Creator Owner	It includes the owner of a resource. It is used only on NTFS volumes.
Network	It includes any user connected to the computer to access the network
Interactive	It includes any user who logs on locally to a computer.