Monthly Archives: January 2012

Reading direct reports

Posted on Sunday 29 January 2012 by richardsiddaway

As stated last time the direct reports is a backlink created from the users who have this particular user as a manager Displaying this attribute is straight forward if (-not (Get-Module ActiveDirectory)){ Import-Module ActiveDirectory } $ou = “OU=England,DC=Manticore,DC=org” $manager = … Continue reading →

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User organisation details

Posted on Sunday 29 January 2012 by richardsiddaway

The organization tab on the user properties can hold a number of items – job title, department, company, manager & direct reports The first four we can set directly. The direct reports attribute is a backlink meaning it is filled … Continue reading →

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Naming Contexts

Posted on Saturday 28 January 2012 by richardsiddaway

Continuing our quick look at The ActiveDirectory name space lets have a look at the MSAD_NamingContext  class Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\MicrosoftActiveDirectory -Class MSAD_NamingContext | Format-Table DistinguishedName, IsFullReplica –AutoSize   DistinguishedName                              IsFullReplica—————–                              ————-DC=DomainDnsZones,DC=Manticore,DC=org                   TrueDC=ForestDnsZones,DC=Manticore,DC=org                   TrueCN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=Manticore,DC=org          TrueCN=Configuration,DC=Manticore,DC=org                    TrueDC=Manticore,DC=org                                     True   This is equivalent … Continue reading →

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Active Directory and WMI

Posted on Saturday 28 January 2012 by richardsiddaway

A lot of the Active Directory related functionality has been removed from WMI but  there is a little bit left in the root\MicrosoftActiveDirectory namespace. This is on a Windows 2008 R2 domain controller – I don’t know if this is … Continue reading →

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Setting user address information

Posted on Saturday 28 January 2012 by richardsiddaway

In AD Users & Computers the user’s properties dialog has a tab for setting address information   if (-not (Get-Module ActiveDirectory)){ Import-Module ActiveDirectory } $ou = “OU=England,DC=Manticore,DC=org” $street = @” 123 Somewhere Place, A big suburb “@ $PObox = “PO … Continue reading →

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PowerShell Deep Dive 2012

Posted on Friday 27 January 2012 by richardsiddaway

The 2012 PowerShell Deep Dive has been announced  – April 29 – May 2 in San Diego. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2012/01/27/it-s-time-for-another-powershell-deep-dive.aspx   This time PowerShell is a full track so expect more of your favourite stuff.  Hope to see you there.

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Restricting a user’s computers

Posted on Friday 27 January 2012 by richardsiddaway

On the Account tab of an AD user’s properties there is a button labelled “Logon to …” that can be used to restrict the computers a user can logon onto. The default is that users can log onto any machine. … Continue reading →

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Integer sizes

Posted on Thursday 26 January 2012 by richardsiddaway

  If you’ve used PowerShell for any time you will be away of [int] meaning integer. One common use is in functions to define a parameter’s data type function test1 { param (   [int]$a,   [int]$b ) $a * … Continue reading →

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Setting a users logon hours

Posted on Thursday 26 January 2012 by richardsiddaway

By default a user can logon 24/7.  Is this acceptable – should users be able to logon during the night or weekends. AD Users and Computers has a GUI to set the hours users can logon. But we don’t need … Continue reading →

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Creating an OU

Posted on Wednesday 25 January 2012 by richardsiddaway

Creating an OU is a fairly common activity. The GUI is quick enough for a single OU but we need PowerShell for bulk creation. Its a straight forward activity if (-not (Get-Module ActiveDirectory)){ Import-Module ActiveDirectory } $ou = “OU=BlogTests,DC=Manticore,DC=org” “`nMicrosoft” … Continue reading →

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