How to Use Net User in Windows XP

• 1 Open the Windows command shell. Go to the Start menu and click the "Run..." button. Type "CMD" into the open field and click "OK."

• 2 Type "net user" into the command prompt (without the quotation marks) and press "Enter" on your keyboard. Entered without any parameters, the net user command will return a list of the user accounts on your computer.

• 3 Pick the account that you want to alter. For example, If you want to view an account named JohnDoe, type "net user JohnDoe" into the command prompt. This will return information on the JohnDoe account, including system privileges and login dates and times

• 4 Enter "net user JohnDoe /delete" to delete JohnDoe. This will remove the account from your computer. You can also disable the account without deleting it by typing "net user JohnDoe /active:no." To reactivate the account, type "net user JohnDoe /active:yes."

• 5 Change JohnDoe's ability to change his own password. Type "net user JohnDoe /passwordchg:" and enter either "yes" or "no." For example, to give JohnDoe the ability to change his own password, type "net user JohnDoe /passwordchg:yes." To change whether or not JohnDoe's account needs a password, type "net user JohnDoe /passwordreq:" followed by either "yes" or "no."

• 6 Create a new account by using the "/add" parameter. For example, to add an account called JohnSmith, type "net user JohnSmith /add."

• 7 Set accounts to expire on a certain date. To set JohnDoe's account to expire on December 10, 2011, for example, type "net user JohnDoe /expires:12/10/2011." If you want the account to never expire, replace the date with "never."