How do I break into a computer that is Azure joined as a non-admin account?

thecomputerguy

Well-Known Member
Reaction score
1,425
I have a client who's owners are young whipper snappers and they will occasionally try to setup a new employee on an existing Azure joined device without involving me.

When you unbox a computer for the first time and Azure join it through Windows setup the initial account created is an Azure joined account with local admin privileges.

The issue is, if this employee is terminated and an additional Azure licensed account is added to the computer that next account is added as a standard user so can't install anything.

The original employees account is then decommissioned and now the computer has a local admin account that is not able to login, and a standard account that can't install anything.

I don't have my RMM on any of these systems, Non-MSP.

The only way I was able to get around it was to reinstate the original employees terminated local admin account, then use the command:

net localgroup administrators AzureAD\JohnDoe /add

To promote the new user a local admin, then decommission the original account again. I then added a backdoor local admin account.

What can be done in the future to avoid this rudimentary process of regaining local admin without all of the above?

Yes I understand giving users local admin is not best practice but for small companies sometimes this is inevitable if they need to install a printer or something.
 
Also, as part of your 365 tenant setup, enable LAPS....to keep ahead of this. This way, once a rig joins AzureAD...you're never locally locked out. It rotates fresh local Administrator creds annually....each one unique to each rig.
1749606508134.png
 
If you don't have Intune, you're stuck doing the same thing we always did...

PC Unlocker or something equivalent to make a local admin account, and go from there.

The process above does work, and if it's the only local admin you've got, and you have no RMM / Intune... well that's the best you've got too.
 
Back
Top