Delegating Permissions to Reset User Account Passwords
Delegation can help administrators save ample time and help them concentrate on more tedious tasks at hand. This is no different when it comes to delegating password resetting capability. Administrators normally go about delegation by giving a group of users the ability to reset passwords. Here's how you'd go about delegating password reset permissions using Microsoft's native offering:
- Select users or user groups that are to be delegated.
- Open the ADUC, find your domain tree and browse to the topmost level that you wish to apply user permissions, and select 'Delegate Control'.
- At the Welcome dialog, click Next.
- At the Users or Groups dialog, click the Add... button. You will be prompted to add a user or group to which you will apply delegated rights.
- At the Select Users, Computers, or Groups dialog, either type the name of the object (use domain\username or domain\groupname for best results) or click 'Advanced'> 'Find' to locate your resource you wish to apply permissions to.
- Once you've selected your resource(s), click 'OK' at the Select Users, Computers, or Groups dialog, then click 'Next' at the Users or Groups dialog.
- Delegate your tasks
- At the Tasks to Delegate dialog, you can select from a wide assortment of tasks to assign to your users. If you only want to delegate the reset password task, ensure that the 'Delegate the following common tasks' radio button is ticked and select 'Reset user passwords and force password change at logon' and click the 'Next' button.
- Complete the Delegation of Control Wizard.
Once you've finished delegating your tasks, you can click the 'Finish' button at the Completing the Delegation of Control Wizard dialog. Now the users you delegated these tasks to should be able to reset passwords (or perform other actions you specified) on the objects in the OU where you set up the delegated permissions.