This Setting allows an administrator to manage local groups on a Device.
Possible settings:
Update Group Membership: Update a group and add and/or remove members though the 'U' action.
When using Update, existing group members that aren't specified in the policy remain untouched.
Replace Group Membership: Restrict a group by replacing group membership through the 'R' action.
When using Replace, existing group membership is replaced by the list of members specified in
the add member section. This option works in the same way as a Restricted Group and any group
members that aren't specified in the policy are removed.
Atenție
If the same group is configured with both Replace and Update, then Replace will win.
Notă
The RestrictedGroups/ConfigureGroupMembership policy setting also allows you to configure members (users or Microsoft Entra groups) to a Windows 10 local group. However, it allows only for a full replace of the existing groups with the new members and does not allow selective add or remove.
Starting from Windows 10, version 20H2, it is recommended to use the LocalUsersAndGroups policy instead of the RestrictedGroups policy. Applying both the policies to the same device is unsupported and may yield unpredictable results.
Description framework properties:
Property name
Property value
Format
chr (string)
Access Type
Add, Delete, Get, Replace
Allowed values:
Expand to see schema XML
XML
<xs:schemaxmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"version="1.0"><xs:simpleTypename="name"><xs:restrictionbase="xs:string"><xs:maxLengthvalue="255" /></xs:restriction></xs:simpleType><xs:elementname="accessgroup"><xs:complexType><xs:sequence><xs:elementname="group"minOccurs="1"maxOccurs="1"><xs:annotation><xs:documentation>Group Configuration Action</xs:documentation></xs:annotation><xs:complexType><xs:attributename="action"type="name"use="required" /></xs:complexType></xs:element><xs:elementname="add"minOccurs="0"maxOccurs="unbounded"><xs:annotation><xs:documentation>Group Member to Add</xs:documentation></xs:annotation><xs:complexType><xs:attributename="member"type="name"use="required" /></xs:complexType></xs:element><xs:elementname="remove"minOccurs="0"maxOccurs="unbounded"><xs:annotation><xs:documentation>Group Member to Remove</xs:documentation></xs:annotation><xs:complexType><xs:attributename="member"type="name"use="required" /></xs:complexType></xs:element><xs:elementname="property"minOccurs="0"maxOccurs="unbounded"><xs:annotation><xs:documentation>Group property to configure</xs:documentation></xs:annotation><xs:complexType><xs:attributename="desc"type="name"use="required" /><xs:attributename="value"type="name"use="required" /></xs:complexType></xs:element></xs:sequence><xs:attributename="desc"type="name"use="required" /></xs:complexType></xs:element><xs:elementname="GroupConfiguration"><xs:complexType><xs:sequence><xs:elementname="accessgroup"minOccurs="0"maxOccurs="unbounded"><xs:annotation><xs:documentation>Local Group Configuration</xs:documentation></xs:annotation></xs:element></xs:sequence></xs:complexType></xs:element></xs:schema>
Examples:
Here is an example of the policy definition XML for group configuration:
<accessgroup desc>: Specifies the name or SID of the local group to configure. If you specify a SID, the LookupAccountSid API is used to translate the SID to a valid group name. If you specify a name, the LookupAccountName API is used to lookup the group and validate the name. If name/SID lookup fails, the group is skipped and the next group in the XML file is processed. If there are multiple errors, the last error is returned at the end of the policy processing.
<group action>: Specifies the action to take on the local group, which can be Update and Restrict, represented by U and R:
Update. This action must be used to keep the current group membership intact and add or remove members of the specific group.
Restrict. This action must be used to replace current membership with the newly specified groups. This action provides the same functionality as the RestrictedGroups/ConfigureGroupMembership policy setting.
<add member>: Specifies the SID or name of the member to configure.
<remove member>: Specifies the SID or name of the member to remove from the specified group.
Notă
When specifying member names of the user accounts, you must use following format - AzureAD\userUPN. For example, "AzureAD\user1@contoso.com" or "AzureAD\user2@contoso.co.uk".
For adding Microsoft Entra groups, you need to specify the Microsoft Entra group SID. Microsoft Entra group names are not supported with this policy.
For more information, see LookupAccountNameA function.
<add member> and <remove member> can use a Microsoft Entra SID or the user's name. For adding or removing Microsoft Entra groups using this policy, you must use the group's SID. Microsoft Entra group SIDs can be obtained using Graph API for Groups. The SID is present in the securityIdentifier attribute.
When specifying a SID in the <add member> or <remove member>, member SIDs are added without attempting to resolve them. Therefore, be very careful when specifying a SID to ensure it is correct.
<remove member> is not valid for the R (Restrict) action and will be ignored if present.
The list in the XML is processed in the given order except for the R actions, which get processed last to ensure they win. It also means that, if a group is present multiple times with different add/remove values, all of them will be processed in the order they are present.
Example 1: Microsoft Entra ID focused.
The following example updates the built-in administrators group with the SID S-1-5-21-2222222222-3333333333-4444444444-500 with a Microsoft Entra account "bob@contoso.com" and a Microsoft Entra group with the SID S-1-12-1-111111111-22222222222-3333333333-4444444444 on a Microsoft Entra joined machine.
Example 2: Replace / Restrict the built-in administrators group with a Microsoft Entra user account.
Notă
When using the 'R' replace option to configure the built-in Administrators group with the SID S-1-5-21-2222222222-3333333333-4444444444-500 you should always specify the administrator as a member plus any other custom members. This is necessary because the built-in administrator must always be a member of the administrators group.
Example 3: Update action for adding and removing group members on a hybrid joined machine.
The following example shows how you can update a local group (Administrators with the SID S-1-5-21-2222222222-3333333333-4444444444-500)—add an AD domain group as a member using its name (Contoso\ITAdmins), add a Microsoft Entra group by its SID (S-1-12-1-111111111-22222222222-3333333333-4444444444), and remove a local account (Guest) if it exists.
When Microsoft Entra group SID's are added to local groups, Microsoft Entra account logon privileges are evaluated only for the following well-known groups on a Windows 10 device:
Administrators
Users
Guests
Power Users
Remote Desktop Users
Remote Management Users
FAQs
This section provides answers to some common questions you might have about the LocalUsersAndGroups policy CSP.
What happens if I accidentally remove the built-in Administrator SID from the Administrators group?
Removing the built-in Administrator account from the built-in Administrators group is blocked at SAM/OS level for security reasons. Attempting to do so will result in failure with the following error:
Error Code
Symbolic Name
Error Description
Header
0x55b (Hex) 1371 (Dec)
ERROR_SPECIAL_ACCOUNT
Cannot perform this operation on built-in accounts.
winerror.h
When configuring the built-in Administrators group with the R (Restrict) action, specify the built-in Administrator account SID/Name in <add member> to avoid this error.
Can I add a member that already exists?
Yes, you can add a member that is already a member of a group. This will result in no changes to the group and no error.
Can I remove a member if it isn't a member of the group?
Yes, you can remove a member even if it isn't a member of the group. This will result in no changes to the group and no error.
How can I add a domain group as a member to a local group?
To add a domain group as a member to a local group, specify the domain group in <add member> of the local group. Use fully qualified account names (for example, domain_name\group_name) instead of isolated names (for example, group_name) for the best results. See LookupAccountNameA function for more information.
Can I apply more than one LocalUserAndGroups policy/XML to the same device?
No, this is not allowed. Attempting to do so will result in a conflict in Intune.
What happens if I specify a group name that doesn't exist?
Invalid group names or SIDs will be skipped. Valid parts of the policy will apply, and error will be returned at the end of the processing. This behavior aligns with the on-prem AD GPP (Group Policy Preferences) LocalUsersAndGroups policy. Similarly, invalid member names will be skipped, and error will be returned at the end to notify that not all settings were applied successfully.
What happens if I specify R and U in the same XML?
If you specify both R and U in the same XML, the R (Restrict) action takes precedence over U (Update). Therefore, if a group appears twice in the XML, once with U and again with R, the R action wins.
How do I check the result of a policy that is applied on the client device?
After a policy is applied on the client device, you can investigate the event log to review the result:
Open Event Viewer (eventvwr.exe).
Navigate to Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > DeviceManagement-Enterprise-Diagnostics-Provider > Admin.
Search for the LocalUsersAndGroups string to review the relevant details.
How can I troubleshoot Name/SID lookup APIs?
To troubleshoot Name/SID lookup APIs:
Enable lsp.log on the client device by running the following commands:
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