Found a service which logs on using the account name ".\AccountName" - What does ".\" mean? [duplicate]

The period is a short-name for "current machine". If I'm attempting to RDP into a machine named CLASS02 in a domain univ.example.com with a local-user named 'class_eng' I could do so as:

• CLASS02\class_eng
• class_eng (assuming the RDP client itself doesn't auto-fill a domain or machine
• .\class_eng

It's a portability thing.

.\ means local machine, so the account is logging in using an account defined on the local machine.

however, if the machine in question is a domain controller, then there are no local accounts as the domain database serves as the local account database for a domain controller. in this case, an account prefixed with .\ would be a domain account.