The last topic we are going to cover in this article is how to change the service accounts SQL Server 2000 uses. If you remember from my last article, during the installation of SQL Server we are prompted to choose what accounts we would like SQL Server to use. If you ever need to change the accounts used, the process is fairly simple.
To access the Services console in Windows 2000 open Control Panel and select Administrative Tools.
Open Services to launch the Services console.
When you scroll down the list of services you should see MSSQLServer and SQLServerAgent if your SQL Server is installed as a Default Instance. If you have one or more Named Instances installed, the name of the services are MSSQL$InsName and SQLAgent$InsName (where InsName is the instance’s name) respectively.
Once you have located the appropriate service, you can double click to view the properties for that service.
On the General tab you can stop, start, pause, and resume the service. Setting the Startup type allows you to specify if the service should start when Windows starts (Automatic), should only start if the service is required or if you start it by hand (Manual), or if the service should never run even if required (Disabled). You can also give this service a description — handy if you have many named instances installed.
The last screen we are going to look at in the Services section is the Log On tab. From here you can select the account the Service will use. You can select to use the Local System account or you can use another account (ex: a Domain account). Clicking the Browse button lets you see a list of available users to select from.