I have an SQL Server 2012 instance running as a service on my computer, and according to the service page it logs on as account "NT Service\MSSQLSERVER". However I can't see that account name anywhere else including in the "Local Users and Groups" area in the computer management screen, because, as a link below says, that's not a User Account, it's a service name, in that box that Microsoft so helpfully labelled "account". At this point I can see many people being confused.
The task I'm trying to accomplish is to restore files using the SSMS dialog "Locate Backup File", which uses a dialog completely unlike any of the standard windows file open dialogs, probably because it's doing a "remote" job and operating from the security context of the SQL server, another rich source of end user confusion, that I hope this question might help clear up.
So far if I want to restore a backup .mdf/.bak file that I have in one of my folders, I have to set that folder to readable by Everyone or else I can't get in there with the SQL Server "Locate Backup File" window. I find this idea that you're using a GUI talking to a service that has different user accounts and rights than you, that nobody at Microsoft even cared to make clear to you, very confusing even when I have years of experience with windows system administration.
I'm hoping I missed some documentation pages for SQL Server that would tell you, after installing a new SQL server instance, how you might set up security.
Forum posts like this one have even Microsoft staffers saying "this is complicated", and that it "changed, again" in Denali. How does this work now in SQL Server 2012, and how might I add permission to read files belonging to Users to the SQL Database engine's security SID.
