Script to Change Service Account

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Sometime back I was asked by one of my customer who wanted to change the startup account for SQLServer Service and SQLBrowser Service without manually going to SQL Server Configuration Manager and changing password there.

By the way, did you know...

  1. You should NOT change the password from Services.msc for SQL Server. Only supported way to change it is from Enterprise Manager (in SQL 2000) and Configuration Manager (in SQL 2005 onwards)
  2. If only service account password is changed using configuration manager, it does not need a restart of SQL Server Service.

Below is the script which could be used. Save the below script to .vbs file and make changes to reflect your instance name/Service name and account.

set sqlsvr = GetObject("WINMGMTS:\\.\root\Microsoft\SqlServer\ComputerManagement:SqlService.ServiceName='MSSQLSERVER',SQLServiceType=1")sqlsvr.SetServiceAccount "LocalSystem"

set browsersvr = GetObject("WINMGMTS:\\.\root\Microsoft\SqlServer\ComputerManagement:SqlService.ServiceName='SQLBrowser',SQLServiceType=1")

browsersvr.SetServiceAccount "NetworkService"

You can make changes to modify SQL Agent account as well. Hope this helps.