psexec logon failure: "unknown user name or bad password."

I was able to reproduce your problem and fix it thus:

Do The following and hit enter

Start>Run>secpol.msc

Navigate to

Local Policies>Security Options

Set the policy "Network Access: Sharing and security model for local accounts" to (Just hit OK: Don't close this out as we will be changing it back).

Guest only – local users authenticate as Guest

Open a command box and run (Dont close this either)

gpupdate /force

Go back and set the policy "Network Access: Sharing and security model for local accounts" back to

Classic - local users authenticate as themselves

Again run

gpupdate /force

It should work now.

I'm not sure whether you're working on your own or part of a larger user domain. I had the same issue and resolved it as follows:

psexec \\REMOTEMACHINE -u DOMAIN\USERNAME ...

Basically, I prefaced my username with the domain name.

Even though this has already been answered, I thought i would post a quick test i just did with this same error / result.. As i might find it in google in a year or two when i forget.

Simply, trying the standard command as in the question above.. I got the same response.. But ..

If i mapped a network drive or browsed to the c$ share, this would then allow psexec to work...

So this might be a hack/shortcut around things allow for the required network auth on another level...

You must ensure the time is synchronized throughout all the machines. If not, psexec will never work on Windows 7 and will report logon failure.