Verifying Active Directory Credentials

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2020-01-10

If you're like me, you are often configuring servers and services to use service accounts - a service account is a dedicated Active Directory account that is not used by any users, instead it is used by an application to access network resources. Sometimes I am unsure if I have the right password for the service account (for example, configuring SQL Reporting Services to use an AD account), so it is helpful if I can verify that I have the right username and password.

You can test this using a command prompt (or PowerShell!) in Windows. Simply open up an administrative command prompt and type in the following:

Start-Process -FilePath cmd.exe /c -Credential (Get-Credential)

You will be prompted for your Active Directory username and password - type them in and if you don't get an error, then you know you have the right credentials!