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I have an issue where when I log into SSMS I am not seeing any logins. I am running as an administrator and logging in with SA. It does not matter which account I log in with. I only ever see the two logins listed. If I try and make a change or create a login I get access denied. I used PStools.exe and still get the same Access Denied Error. I can not make even the slightest changes with PStools.exe, Sqlcmd or SSMS.

See Picture of SSMS

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    Looks like you've connected to SQL Server as SERVER4\CCC, not sa. That you ran SSMS as an administrator on your client doesn't elevate your rights on the server - it only elevates the rights of the things SSMS can do on the local machine on your behalf.
    – testing-ma-lady
    Commented Jun 12 at 21:53

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Groups can also be logins, and in this case I want to point out the BUILTIN\Users login, which includes all the local users on the host Windows system (even the local administrator) and will NOT have the permissions needed to add additional logins or change permissions or roles.

But I also see this:

I am Running as an administrator and logging in with SA.

And I expect that's just not true. The connection properties will mostly likely show you have integrated/Windows authentication, which picks up the authentication token from the local account. And since there is no separate/special login for the local Administrator account (unless you're in single user mode), this will still get the basic BUILTIN\Users permissions.

How to access connection properties

Also, I can only think of bad reasons to give the sysadmin role to the SYSTEM account; nothing good will come of that.

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  • Thank you for your awesome answer!. So How can this be resolved so I can create a new login?
    – Brandon Oisten
    Commented Jun 13 at 14:09
  • You have to actually connect to SQL Server with the sa username and password. This is an sql login (not using Windows authentication). When you have done this, you should first create a new administrator account so you can then disable the sa account. After that, you can create other accounts for day to day use and assign permissions to them.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Jun 13 at 15:41

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