I believe you could also use WinVNC, which is a free product. it will also take clients installed on all the workstations and servers though. Best of luck

On an XP workstation if you were logged in as an admin could right click on My Computer then Mange, when window opens, right click on Computer Management and choose Connect to another computer and do the tasks you mentioned. If you were on a workstation and not logged in with Admin rights you could go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, right click on Computer Managment and select Run As, put your Administrator credentials in and then do the steps mentioned above.

Wolfee,
that works great for the shared folder part. Thank you very much.
Now just to get that password changed remotely….

You can do that at the same place, just expand the Local User and Groups, select users, right click on the account you want to modify, set password is the first option.

Running admin from ANY workstaion is not a best practice.
If the count for ANY is more than 2, talk to your administrator. Or better yet, have him promoted to the help desk.

For safety. always avoid remote tools and setting up remote shares. Too many security problems. Unless of course you work for Ringling Brothers.

Don’t forget the ‘Command Line’! ‘Net’ and the more specific ‘Net Use’ do both things and a lot more. You only have to have an account in the ‘Account Operators’ and use the password for that account to change others. Its not GUI, but it is a thing of beauty if you have slow connections.

well, obviously I don’t have a lot of remote admin tools and shares set up or I wouldn’t be needing to ask.

All I really want to accomplish is…if I am 2 blocks from my servers or my desk, and need to change someones password, is there any way to do it from an XP workstation without installing admin tools?

I am not familiar witht “net use” command, so I don’t know if that will do it.

Thanks for all your replies, and if you know of any documentation that will help let me know.

adios

The computer management MMC snap in allows you to do this also. Just connect to the computer you want and you have access as needed. Local accounts and shares can then be manipulated as long as you have admin privileges

If you have Winxp on the workstations you can use Remote Desktop connection to remote into your server and make your changes.

Use Scripting. From Microsofts Script Center Site:

1. Change the Password for a User

Changes the password for a user. Requires you to know the user’s previous password.

Set objUser = GetObject _
(“LDAP://cn=myerken,ou=management,dc=fabrikam,dc=com”)

objUser.ChangePassword “i5A2sj*!”, “jl3R86df”

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scripts/ad/users/pwds/uspwvb02.mspx

2. or Assign a Password to a User

Configures a new password for a user.

Set objUser = GetObject _
(“LDAP://cn=MyerKen,ou=management,dc=fabrikam,dc=com”)

objUser.SetPassword “i5A2sj*!”

at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scripts/ad/users/pwds/uspwvb01.mspx

SF

Changing passwords remotely:
Do you know the current password?
ctrl+alt+del, change password, enter the user name for which you want to change the password & the current password, and what you want the new password to be.
Resetting password:
use Active Directory Users and Computers MMC, part of the Server Admin tools.

Here’s an even better method for remote administration I think works great! Get yourself a blackberry and install SonicAdmin on it. Change passwords, reset accounts, and the list goes on and on. I use group policies to prevent users from opening any type of admin console. (Computer management, active directory, sites and services etc). Realistically, anyone can install admin tools and then launch active directory and actually look at your heirarchy and replication stuff. Stuff users shouldn’t be looking at or even having the option to look at. I don’t work for SonicAdmin. I just love their product!

you can Use active directory to reset password for user accounts

you can change or reset local system accounts on individual workstations by using “managemnt console” and using “connect to anouther pc” tool, you will need admin rights,

creating remote shares on workstations via the $share or remote admin tool for servers

WinVNC (and UltraVNC–my favorite) have Java clients, so formal install isn’t necessary.

I use Dameware. The free trial is good for I think a month.