You are the network administrator. You use your nonadministrative account named Bill to log on to a client computer. You need to change the password for a domain user account named Melissa. You open the Active Directory Users and Computers console. When you attempt to change Melissa’s password, you receive the following error message: “Access is denies.” What should you do?

You are the network administrator. You use your nonadministrative account named Bill to log on to a client computer. You need to change the password for a domain user account named Melissa. You open the Active Directory Users and Computers console. When you attempt to change Melissa’s password, you receive the following error message: “Access is denies.” What should you do?

You are the network administrator. You use your nonadministrative account named Bill to log on to a client computer. You need to change the password for a domain user account named Melissa. You open the Active Directory Users and Computers console. When you attempt to change Melissa’s password, you receive the following error message: “Access is denies.” What should you do?


Answer – Use the runas command to run Active Directory Users and Computers with domain administrative credentials.

(You must be using administrator credentials to change a password. Security best practices suggest you work logged on as a user—in this case, Bill. Right-click Active Directory Users and Computers, and select RunAs from the menu. Log on as Administrator for the brief moment needed to change the password and then resume normal business logged on as Bill.)