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Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) is a common tool used by administrators to carry out daily tasks and much more in Active Directory AD. Some of the tasks an administrator can perform with the help of this MMC snap-in are as follows:
How to Install Active Directory Users and ComputersThe process to install ADUC for Windows 10 1809 and above differs from the process for Windows 10 1803 and below. Here are the two processes for installing ADUC: Installing Active Directory Users and Computers for Windows 1809 and higher
The installation of Active Directory Domain Services and Lightweight Directory Tools will contain the ADUC console. To verify, go to Start. It will now have Windows Administrative Tools on the list. Installing Active Directory Users and Computers for Windows 1803 and lower, and Windows 8
When the installation process is done, you will have ADUC on your computer. To verify, go to Start. The menu will have a folder called Administrative Tools which should contain Active Directory Users and Computers. How to open Active Directory Users and ComputersThe following are some ways to open Active Directory Users and Computers on a DC: Method 1: Through RUN command
Method 2: From the Start menu
Method 3: From the Control Panel
Now that ADUC has been installed and opened, let’s see how you can perform the various functions using the console. Creating a new user account
Enabling or disabling a user account
Resetting a user account password
Creating a new group account
Adding a member to a group
Changing the group type or group scope
Creating a new computer account
Resetting a computer account
Creating a new organizational unit (OU)
Deleting a users, computers, and OUs
Now, let us look at some advanced tasks that will come in handy for an administrator managing users, computers, and other objects in Active Directory. Advanced Settings in ADUCADUC contains multiple advanced functionalities that allow administrators to work with complex settings and containers that are otherwise not visible in the console. To enable advanced features, you can perform the following steps:
The advanced settings are now enabled. Now, to view the user and computer attributes, you can perform the following steps:
Protecting Objects from Accidental DeletionThis action denies the permission to delete the object, and when attempting to do so it displays an error message. The following steps illustrate how to protect AD objects from accidental deletion:
Searching for ObjectsObjects in AD can be located using the Find dialog box in the ADUC console. The following steps illustrate how to perform the search:
An alternate method to search for objects is using the DSquery command line tool. To learn how, you can check out this article. Creating a Saved QuerySaved Queries in ADUC allows administrators to access and audit information in AD and filter just those objects that meet a certain criteria. The following steps illustrate how you can create a Saved Query:
This will list only those accounts that fulfil the criteria specified in the query. |