Windows 10: Find Security Identifier (SID) of User in Windows

How to: Find Security Identifier (SID) of User in Windows

How to Find Security Identifier (SID) of User in Windows


Sometimes, you need to know what the security identifier (SID) is for a specific user on the system.

A SID is a string value of variable length that is used to uniquely identify users or groups, and control their access to various resources like files, registry keys, network shares etc. Each account has a unique SID that an authority, such as a Windows domain, issues. The SID is stored in the security database. When a user logs on, the system retrieves the user SID from the database, places the SID in the user access token, and then uses the SID in the user access token to identify the user in all subsequent interactions with Windows security. Each SID is a unique identifier for a user or group, and a different user or group cannot have the same SID.

See also: Well-known security identifiers in Windows operating systems

This tutorial will show you different ways on how to find the security identifier (SID) of a user account in Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Find SID of Current User using "WhoAmI" command
• Option Two: To Find SID of Current User using "wmic useraccount" command
• Option Three: To Find SID of All Users using "wmic useraccount" command
• Option Four: To Find SID of Specific User using "wmic useraccount" command
• Option Five: To Find User Name for SID using "wmic useraccount" command
• Option Six: To Find SID of All Users using "Get-WmiObject" PowerShell command
• Option Seven: To Find SID of Users using Registry Editor

EXAMPLE: Security Identifier (SID) with account association









OPTION ONE [/i] To Find SID of Current User using "WhoAmI" command
1. Open a PowerShell.

2. Enter the command below, and press Enter.

*Arrow whoami /user








OPTION TWO [/i] To Find SID of Current User using "wmic useraccount" command
1. Open a command prompt.

2. Enter the command below, and press Enter.

*Arrow wmic useraccount where name='%username%' get domain,name,sid








OPTION THREE [/i] To Find SID of All Users using "wmic useraccount" command
1. Open a PowerShell.

2. Enter the command below, and press Enter.

*Arrow wmic useraccount get domain,name,sid








OPTION FOUR [/i] To Find SID of Specific User using "wmic useraccount" command
1. Open a PowerShell.

2. Enter the command below, and press Enter.

*Arrow wmic useraccount where name='username' get sid

*note Substitute username in the command above with the actual user name (ex: "Brink") of the account you want to find the SID for.

For example: wmic useraccount where name='Brink' get sid








OPTION FIVE [/i] To Find User Name for SID using "wmic useraccount" command
1. Open a PowerShell.

2. Enter the command below, and press Enter.

*Arrow wmic useraccount where sid='<sid>' get domain,name

*note Substitute <sid> in the command above with the actual SID (ex: "S-1-5-21-237214570-1361766723-3061440971-1001") of the account you want to see the name for.

For example: wmic useraccount where sid='S-1-5-21-237214570-1361766723-3061440971-1001' get domain,name








OPTION SIX [/i] To Find SID of All Users using "Get-WmiObject" PowerShell command
1. Open PowerShell.

2. Enter the command below, and press Enter.

*Arrow Get-WmiObject win32_useraccount | Select domain,name,sid








OPTION SEVEN [/i] To Find SID of Users using Registry Editor

*note This option has one limitation which is you can only get the SID of either a local user or a domain user who has logged in at least once onto this PC.

1. Press the Win+R keys to open Run, type regedit, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
3. Each of the items at this hive is named with the SID of the account. By looking at the ProfileImagePath key for each SID, you can identify the account’s name.

*note For example, the S-1-5-21-237214570-1361766723-3061440971-1001 SID key is for the user with the C:\Users\Brink profile folder path and Brink being the account name.





That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to View Full Details of All User Accounts in Windows 10

:)

 

New user not setup in registry or with folders

The Windows registry does not identify users by username. Users are identified by their security identifier (SID), which is a globally unique hexadecimal string.

If you are signed in to a user account with Administrator permissions (not the built-in Administrator, which is a system account) and you are not using a temporary profile, the standard instructions for adding a new user work correctly.

 

"Unknown" accounts

"S" account are generally the security descriptor of a standard user S accounts a re called SIDS (Security IDentifier). You cannot and should not remove it or you will break what ever account it refers to. If you give us more of the descriptor S?????????
we may be able to give you more specific info

 

Shawn, There's also Mark Russinovich's tool PsGetSid

 

WMIC UserAccount Where Name='%Username%' Get SID
-
This works perfectly but it only works in Command Prompt and not in a .bat file.
I also cannot assign it to a string variable since it's not just SID and is a multi line string.
I'm not very comfortable with batch files so what's the shortest and easiest way to store it in a variable to use in a batch file? *Smile

 

Hello omidsolo, *Smile

If you like, you could use the command in Option 1 or 3 in a .bat file.