Local Users and Groups

Definition of Local Users and Groups in The Network Encyclopedia.

What is Local Users and Groups?

A Microsoft Windows 2000 administrative tool available on member servers running Windows 2000 Server and client computers running Windows 2000 Professional that you can use to create and manage local user accounts and local groups on the machine. Local Users and Groups is implemented as a snap-in for Microsoft Management Console (MMC), like other Windows 2000 administrative tools.

You can use Local Users and Groups only if a workgroup security model is being used for your network. In a workgroup, each computer manages its own security and maintains its own local security database of account information.

If your network uses a domain security model, all user accounts for the domain are stored in Active Directory, which contains a distributed domain directory database maintained by domain controllers on your network.

You cannot install Local Users and Groups on domain controllers; on these machines, you should use Active Directory Users and Computers for creating domain user accounts.