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SharePoint 2010 displays 'System Account' as the logged in user

Background

Sometimes SharePoint administrators would like to update content in their site in certain ways, but don't want everything to show up as being last modified by them by name. Instead, they would prefer that the record simply show that it was last updated by System Account. On the other hand, sometimes administrators are not sure why SharePoint shows them as being logged in as System Account and why everything they edit or upload is tagged as such.

The Problem

It is not immediately clear in SharePoint when the user will be shown as System Account. The options to control this are also not immediately obvious. At times the problem is even rooted in what account is being used to run the application pool for a web application.

If the identity of the application pool is that of a particular administrator or if the administrator logs in as the farm account or the application pool account, then SharePoint will show that person as System Account. If none of these three is the case then SharePoint checks the web application's User Policies. The User Policies can specify certain access permissions for all content within web application and specifies whether users are shown as System Account. These settings are configurable by zone and can apply to AD Users and AD Groups. If the logged in user and the groups he or she is part of are specified in the User Policies as System Account, then SharePoint will display the person's name and update records with their username instead of System Account.

How to change it

If your issue stems from the User Policies then you have to make the change in Central Administration. Navigate to theManage web applications page, which can be found at that this URL:

http://CentralAdminHostName:PortNumber/_admin/WebApplicationList.aspx

Select the web application that you would like to modify and click on the User Policy button on the ribbon. That will show the Policy for Web Application dialog box where you can add an AD group or user and set the proper options for them. The option labeled as Account operates as System, when checked, will show the user as System Account.

If you issue stems from the fact that your web application is running as your personal user account, then you may have not set up SharePoint as recommended. You can use the following stsadm command (for which there is no PowerShell cmdlet).

stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials ...
Described here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262150(office.12).aspx

Followed by:

iisreset

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