How to add usernames to the BOINC groups under Basic and Home versions of Windows?

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By default, the Basic and Home versions of Windows do not have a Group Policy editor, so you can't add users through a GUI to specific groups as you can in the (more expensive) Pro and above that versions of Windows.

You can add users by going through the command prompt. You will need to be logged in as an administrator to be able to do this. It's possible that you will get an error message in the command prompt window, something like "Access denied". In this case try to run the command prompt as administrator, even when you're already logged in as administrator, by right clicking on Command Prompt and choosing "Run as administrator".

In the case where the warning is about the boinc_admins group, or you want to add people to the group that's allowed to run & control the BOINC client, or that is allowed to run the screen saver, use:

  • Click on the 'Start' button.
  • Click on 'Programs'.
  • Click on 'Desktop-Accessories'.
  • Right-click on 'Command Prompt'.
  • Choose "Run as administrator".
    • If prompted, fill in the Administrator password.
  • Else confirm in the pop-up window that you want to run the command prompt as administrator.
  • In the command prompt window that opened, type: net localgroup boinc_admins 'username' /add (press Enter), where 'username' (without the quotes) is the user name you want to add. As far as I know, the user name is not case sensitive.

In the case where the warning is about the boinc_users group, or you want to add people to the group that's allowed to run & control BOINC Manager use:

  • Click on the 'Start' button.
  • Click on 'Programs'.
  • Click on 'Desktop-Accessories'.
  • Right-click on 'Command Prompt'.
  • Choose "Run as administrator".
    • If prompted, fill in the Administrator password.
  • Else confirm in the pop-up window that you want to run the command prompt as administrator.
  • In the command prompt window that opened, type: net localgroup boinc_users 'username' /add (press Enter), where 'username' (without the quotes) is the user name you want to add. As far as I know, the user name is not case sensitive.

The above method can be used to add user names to the BOINC groups on Pro and Ultimate versions as well. You may want to reboot the computer after adding the users.

In Windows 7 the command prompt can be found at:

Start->All Programs->Accessories->Command Prompt.


Original writer Original FAQ Date
Jorden 492 02-Jul-2009