Master Password?

[Guest]

The organization I work for (a school district) is moving from standard
passwords to unique passwords. This means that a few thousand people will
have their own unique password. In the past, we've used standard passwords so
that our IT staff can access the computer under the user's account.

Due to security reasons, we will be forcing unique passwords for all users.
This, of course, is a double edged sword. While this method is more secure,
it also forces us to either know the user's unique password or reset it when
we need access to the machine under their account.

Is there a way to set up a master password that allows our techs to access
the machine as an Administrator under the user's account? A solution like
this would greatly ease the headaches we're bound to have.

Our network is running many Windows 2000 servers and has over 30+
(sub)domains.

Thanks!

 

[Hank Arnold]

Every machine has a local administrator password. We set them all to the
same unique secure password. Is that what you are talking about?

 

[Jeremy McPeak]

No. We have administrator accounts set up, but sometimes the problem on the
workstation lies within the user's profile; so making any changes on a
different account doesn't do anything to solve the problem. Sometimes we
must access the machine under the user's account in order to solve the
issue, so I was wondering if there was a master password that could be
assigned to every account.

Think of it as a hall of doors that lock. Each lock has a unique key, but
there is one master key that can unlock all the locks in the hall. So if you
have to work in a specific room in this hall, you don't have to have a key
for every door... just one key for all doors. Make sense?

 

[Danny Sanders]

AFAIK there is nothing native to Windows that will do this. That would also
totally screw up any chance to track/audit the
user's access to files or folders.

I don't know of any third party solutions to do this either.


hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE