In the Windows environment, it is often necessary to work with security identifiers (SIDs) to manage user accounts and permissions. Knowing a user's SID can be useful for troubleshooting, scripting, or auditing purposes. This article will explain how to easily discover a local user's SID in Windows using PowerShell, providing practical examples and commands adapted for the Windows environment.

Examples:

1. Using the Get-WmiObject Cmdlet:

   • Open PowerShell as an administrator.
   • Run the following command to retrieve the SID for a local user named "John":

     Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_UserAccount | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq "John"} | Select-Object SID

   • The output will display the SID associated with the "John" user.

2. Using the Get-LocalUser Cmdlet (Windows 10 and newer):

   • Open PowerShell as an administrator.
   • Run the following command to retrieve the SID for a local user named "John":

     Get-LocalUser -Name "John" | Select-Object SID

   • The output will display the SID associated with the "John" user.

3. Using the [System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier] Class:

   • Open PowerShell as an administrator.
   • Run the following command to retrieve the SID for a local user named "John":

     $user = New-Object System.Security.Principal.NTAccount("John")
     $sid = $user.Translate([System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]).Value
     $sid

   • The output will display the SID associated with the "John" user.