Windows : logoff from command line

We can logoff a user session by clicking on the Logoff button in the start menu. We can logoff from command prompt(CMD) too using shutdown command. You need to run the below command.

Shutdown is a Windows in-built command. We don’t have to install it separately. Note that we can run this command from windows Run window also. This command works on all windows editions. (XP, Vista, Server 2k3/2k8, Windows 7)

There’s another command Logoff which also serves the same purpose. This command can be used to logoff sessions on the remote computers also. Find syntax below for this.

To logoff on the current system

This does not accept user name and passwords so it uses the credentials of the current logged in user on the host system.

How to force logoff without waiting for user confirmation to terminate the running applications?

The above commands do forced logoffs.В They kill all the applications one by one and at the end logs off the user.

If I want to login from command line, how do I set it up?

Open Task manager, click on Users, Right Click, manage user account, it will open control panel. It the path above, open cmd from here. shutdown -l to log out.
Login again. It works.

need to logoff but cannot

i need to log out from anther user with the user name
sameing like that…
logoff username:moss /server:172.19.19.50

Get current logged in user name command line (CMD)

In Windows OS, we can find the current logged in username from windows command line. The logged in user information is stored in environment variables. So just by printing the value in these environment variables we can get to know the login name.

To know the login name of the currently logged in user we can run the below command.

This works on all releases of Windows OS(Windows XP, Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows 7).

There is another command whoami which tells us the domain name also.

Both of these options to find user name can be useful in batch files to write code in such a way that it works for every user. For example, if your batch file need to access a user specific folder, say Application data, then you can refer the directory as ‘C:\users\%username%\appdata‘.

how to know the current user password in windows 7?

run cmd in admin mode and type net user (user name) (12345)
then your password change to 12345

Use this command:
net user “%username%” “%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%”

Suggestion to use command:
net user “%username%” “%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%”
will change your current users password to something completely random

I don’t think it would be possible to find the password as it is stored in encrypted form and not in plain text. However, there are lots of third party tools to reset a administrator password if you have forgotten the same.

when i go onto command promt it says my username is “user” and say c:/users>user

I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM. HAVE YOU SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM YET?

The whoami command does not work in Windows XP without the SP2 Support Tools download. The command is not native to the OS. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18546

Can the %username% command be used to determine the user logged into a differnent computer. ex I am at computer x and want to know who is logged on to computer y. I can remote to the c drive using RDP \\computery\c$ I would also like to definively likt to know who is logged on to that computer. Possible?

No, it does not work that way. %username% always shows the user of the current login session. When you run it on remote computer, I am not sure what you would get but it won’t tell you who logged on to the machine.

You can use PSEXEC to run a command on another PC. It can be found in the PS Tools package available for download on many sites.

With System Internal tools (free http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897545.aspx )
psloggedon \\targetComputer
or
psloggedon \\192.167.0.0

Is it possible to get current User Name when it’s an AD where each user has an ID?
For example, if I run whoami or %username% I get “XX00000” but I want to get “Name SecondName”. I know windows has this info because I see my full name in Start Menu (Win 7).
Thanks

net user %username% for accounts stored in local or net user %username% /domain for accounts stored on domain.

you know this answer…?… anyone please let me know solution for georges’ question.. thanks in advance..

I would also really like a solution for this

If you are asking to find the full name or Surname run this as administrator.
net user
It will show you all the information about that user, full name, logon time, the group this user belongs to, the time it is allowed to login all of that.

When I run whoami from the cmdline I get my username. However I want to find my username from within SQL Server. If I shell out and run whoami I get the sql service user . Any ideas?

what username lets you look at the history

what does it mean by username

Please show screen shot

I have 2 accounts one for me and one for my nephews and nieces so I forgot my password because it makes me change it every other month it seems like and idk why… but I looked up a way to change it by going into the command prompts but it’s only giving me the kids for net user it says mine doesn’t exist I could use some help asap

I need to find my administrator account password when its logged in so is there way i can do it from cmd to find my password without changing it ?

does we have a vraiable like %username% for user group name ?

How do I view all the users on a Windows computer? (5 ways)

Sometimes, you may need to extract a list of all the user accounts on a Windows computer. Or you may want to know the hidden user accounts that exist alongside your user account. To help you out, we compiled a list of five methods that you can use to see all the users, including the hidden ones created by Windows or third-party apps that you installed. Here they are:

Quick Steps:

1. Open CMD or PowerShell.
2. Type net user, and press Enter.
3. Net user lists the users that have accounts configured on a Windows PC, including hidden ones or disabled user accounts.

NOTE: This guide covers Windows 10, Windows 7, and Windows 8.1. If you don’t know the Windows version that you have, read How to tell what Windows I have (11 ways).

1. How to see users using the Windows command line (PowerShell & CMD list users)

This method works both in the Command Prompt and PowerShell. Open the command-line app that you prefer, type net user, and press Enter. Net user lists the users that have accounts configured on a Windows PC, including hidden ones or disabled user accounts. The user accounts are listed by their internal names that Windows uses behind the scenes, not by their full display name that you see when you sign in to Windows.

Run net user to make Windows CMD show users

You can also have the net user list stored in a text file that opens in Notepad or any other text editor. Type net user > filename.txt, and a file with the name you provided is created under “C:\Users\Your User Name.”

Save the net list of users to a file using net user > filename.txt

If you want to export the CMD list of users to a text file that’s saved in a location you choose, enter net user > “path\filename.txt” and press Enter.

Export the CMD list of users to a file at a specified location

A neat trick is using this command to find information about a specific user account: type net user username and press Enter. Windows then displays helpful information about that user account, like when the password was set the last time, when it expires (if it’s set to expire), the groups it’s a part of, and more.

Getting details about a user account in CMD, using the net user command

If you want to know more about this command and all its parameters, go to this documentation page: Net user.

2. How to use PowerShell to get all users on a computer

Besides the net user command, here’s another command that you can use in PowerShell to view all users in Windows 10 or previous versions: Get-WmiObject Win32_UserAccount -filter “LocalAccount=True” | Select-Object Name,FullName,Disabled.

Get-WmiObject Win32_UserAccount -filter “LocalAccount=True” | Select-Object Name,FullName,Disabled

Alternatively, if you use Windows 10, you can also run the simpler get-localuser command, as pointed out by one of our readers.

Using PowerShell to get all users on a computer

3. How to see the list of all user accounts in Computer Management

Another method that displays all user accounts, including hidden users or disabled ones, involves using Computer Management. Open Computer Management, and go to “Local Users and Groups -> Users.” On the right side, you get to see all the user accounts, their names as used by Windows behind the scenes, their full names (or the display names), and, in some cases, also a description.

Windows list of users displayed in Computer Management

Double-click or double-tap on a user account to learn more about its properties and settings, including the user groups that it is part of.

4. How to see the list of active user accounts using the Control Panel

A method that is less geeky but which also displays less information involves opening the Control Panel. After you start it, go to “User accounts” or “User Accounts and Family Safety,” depending on the Windows version that you have.

The User Accounts entry from the Control Panel

Then, click or tap on User accounts.

Opening the User Accounts settings

Now you see your user account, information about it, and several links. Click or tap the link that says “Manage another account.”

Manage another account

Now you see the active, not-hidden user accounts in Windows, whether they are local accounts, administrators, etc.

Control Panel shows the list of users on a Windows computer

With this method, you cannot see hidden or disabled user accounts.

5. How to see the list of active user accounts on the Windows sign-in screen

The obvious and most straightforward method is to look at the sign-in screen just before you log into Windows. You should see all the active (not hidden) user accounts that exist in Windows on this screen. If you are using Windows 10, this list is shown in the bottom-left corner of the sign-in screen.

Windows 10 list of users shown on the sign-in screen

If you are using Windows 7, all active user accounts are displayed front and center.

Windows 7 list of users shown on the sign-in screen

The same is true when using the Windows 8.1 sign-in screen.

Windows 8.1 list of users shown on the sign-in screen

The downside of this method is that you cannot see hidden or disabled user accounts.

Did you find many hidden user accounts on your Windows PC?

We highly recommend trying the first three methods for identifying all the user accounts that exist on your Windows computer or device. You may be surprised to see that some of your apps created hidden user accounts that you had no idea existed. Before closing this tutorial, share in a comment whether you found hidden user accounts on your PC and how many of them were there. We are curious to know.

How do you find the current user in a Windows environment?

When running a command-line script, is it possible to get the name of the current user?

15 Answers 15

You can use the username variable: %USERNAME%

Username:

Domainname:

You can get a complete list of environment variables by running the command set from the command prompt.

Just use this command in command prompt

It should be in %USERNAME% . Obviously this can be easily spoofed, so don’t rely on it for security.

Useful tip: type set in a command prompt will list all environment variables.

%USERNAME% is the correct answer in batch and other in Windows environments.

Another option is to use %USERPROFILE% to get the user’s path, like C:\Users\username .

The answer depends on which «command-line script» language you are in.

In the old cmd.exe command prompt or in a .bat or .cmd script, you can use the following:

%USERNAME% — Gets just the username.

%USERDOMAIN% — Gets the user’s domain.

PowerShell

In the PowerShell command prompt or a .ps1 or .psm1 script, you can use the following:

[System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent().Name — Gives you the fully qualified username (e.g. Domain\Username). This is also the most secure method because it cannot be overridden by the user like the other $Env variables below.

$Env:Username — Gets just the username.

$Env:UserDomain — Gets the user’s domain.

$Env:ComputerName — Gets the name of the computer.

%USERNAME% will get you the username of the currently running process. Depending on how you are running your batch file, this is not necessarily the same as the name of the current user. For example, you might be running your batch file through a scheduled task, from a service, etc.

Here is a more sure way of getting the username of the currently logged on user by scraping the name of the user that started the explorer.exe task:

I use this method in writing batch files for testing.

Since you must include the password in plain text if authentication is required, I will only use it in a completely private environment where other users cannot view it or if a user seeing the password would bear no consequences.

Hope this helps someone out.

It’s always annoyed me how Windows doesn’t have some of more useful little scripting utilities of Unix, such as who/whoami, sed and AWK. Anyway, if you want something foolproof, get Visual Studio Express and compile the following:

And just use that in your batch file.

In most cases, the %USERNAME% variable will be what you want.

However, if you’re running an elevated cmd shell, then %USERNAME% will report the administrator name instead of your own user name. If you want to know the latter, run:

Just type whoami in command prompt and you’ll get the current username.

This is the main difference between username variable and whoami command:

In a standard context, each connected user holds an explorer.exe process: The command [tasklist /V|find «explorer»] returns a line that contains the explorer.exe process owner’s, with an adapted regex it is possible to obtain the required value. This also runs perfectly under Windows 7.

In rare cases explorer.exe is replaced by another program, the find filter can be adapted to match this case. If the command return an empty line then it is likely that no user is logged on. With Windows 7 it is also possible to run [query session|find «>»].

As far as find BlueBearr response the best (while I,m running my batch script with eg. SYSTEM rights) I have to add something to it. Because in my Windows language version (Polish) line that is to be catched by «%%a %%b»==»User Name:» gets REALLY COMPLICATED (it contains some diacritic characters in my language) I skip first 7 lines and operate on the 8th.

Via powershell (file.ps1) I use the following

It returns the name of the user in the «Domain\Username» format. If you just want the username just write

The advantage is that It works with windows 10 windows 8 server 2016. As far as I remember with also other OS like Win7 etc. (not older) . And yeah via batch you can simply use

Not the answer you’re looking for? Browse other questions tagged windows batch-file or ask your own question.

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