Command Reference

whoami

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Summary

whoami displays information about the currently logged-on user and their security context (account name, SID, groups, and privileges) on Windows.

Syntax 

whoami [/UPN] [/FQDN] [/LOGONID] [/USER] [/GROUPS] [/PRIV] [/ALL]

Examples 

whoami

Shows the current user in DOMAIN\User or COMPUTERNAME\User format. 

whoami /upn

Displays the current user as a User Principal Name (UPN), e.g., user@contoso.com (requires domain account). 

whoami /fqdn

Displays the user name using the domain's fully qualified domain name (FQDN), e.g., corp.contoso.com\user (requires domain context). 

whoami /user

Shows the current user and their Security Identifier (SID). 

whoami /groups

Lists group memberships and attributes (e.g., Mandatory, Enabled, Deny-only). 

whoami /priv

Lists security privileges in the current logon token and whether each is enabled or disabled. 

whoami /all

Displays comprehensive identity details: user, SID, groups, privileges, and logon information. 

whoami /logonid

Shows the hexadecimal logon session ID (LUID) for the current session.

Permissions

Administrator required: No

whoami reads the current token and does not modify system state. It works for standard users; some fields may vary based on token filtering or service contexts.

Risk and Impact

Risk level: Low

Changes the system: No

Reveals identity and security details to the console; avoid sharing outputs that contain sensitive SIDs or account names.

Supported Platforms

Windows 10 Windows 11 Windows Server

Important Output Fields

/USER

Reveals the user and SID; useful to confirm which account (and SID) the process is running under.

/GROUPS -> Attributes

Indicates group influence on access (e.g., Deny-only, Mandatory, Enabled by default). Critical when troubleshooting permission issues.

/PRIV -> State

Shows whether sensitive privileges (e.g., SeBackupPrivilege) are enabled; affects ability to perform certain actions.

/LOGONID

Identifies the specific logon session (LUID), helping correlate with security logs or session diagnostics.

/UPN

Outputs user@domain format; helpful for SSO/Kerberos troubleshooting in domain environments.

/FQDN

Displays the user with the domain’s FQDN; helps avoid ambiguity with NetBIOS names.

Common Errors

'whoami' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

Occurs if system paths to System32 are missing from PATH, the binary is unavailable, or on very old/stripped environments. Run from %SystemRoot%\System32 or fix PATH.

ERROR: Invalid syntax. Type "WHOAMI /?" for usage.

Triggered by unsupported or misspelled switches (e.g., /domain). Use whoami /? to see valid options.

UPN/FQDN not available for this account.

The account is local or the system cannot contact a domain controller. Ensure the user is a domain account and the DC is reachable.

Insufficient resources to complete the operation.

Rare; indicates a transient system resource issue when querying token details. Retry or check system health.

Official References

whoami (Windows Commands)

Microsoft Learn · Official Documentation

Open Source