Unrecognized User

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Hello,

In my attempts to access folders that exist, but, can’t be displayed because of not having privileges, I would look at the Security tab under Properties. In that dialog, I noticed that a user ID of S-1-5-21-2721276426-1459487277-3997516212-1000 was listed and had question marks at the beginning of the ID. Does this mean I have a virus? Is it safe to delete that ID from all the Security properties windows I encounter? Why does that user ID not show up in User Account Control?

Thanks for any insight you may be able to give,

badbigdad

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There is nothing wrong with that ID, which is not a username. That string is a Security IDentifier, made by concatenating a base machine SID and an additional Relative ID, to obtain a security identifier for an account. SID’s are used to identify machines, domain accounts, users and security groups.

Although not addressing that issue, Mark Russinovitch’s post here explains a bit what SIDs are used for: http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2009/11/03/3291024.aspx

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Thanks, again. badbigdad

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You’re welcome.

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