Using PowerShell with Active Directory

Our next little jaunt in PowerShell will be to learn how to use it to configure Active Directory accounts. For example, you may have a need to change a particular property of a group of Active Directory users, such as the logon script or profile path, when you need to stage a rollout of a new script or profile. Again, this is something I have done a lot of work with in the past using VBScript, but of course I want to extend my knowledge in PowerShell to achieve the same thing.
Over here we have a list of Active Directory cmdlets:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee617195.aspx
Well, that is quite a list (see below) and I suspect with my growing knowledge of general capabilities of PowerShell that it won’t take long for me to figure out how to process a group of accounts all at once in a script. It looks like the sort of kludges or difficult procedures that have required fairly complex code that didn’t always work as expected in VBScript could be a thing of the past.
Essentially it looks like I would be using Get-ADUser to retrieve a group of users and then iterating through them calling Set-ADObject each time in order to change the desired property of each user object.
Generally, we would run this script on a domain controller. However, we can run it on a desktop or some other computer provided it has the RSAT installed, as described in this blog article:
blogs.msdn.com/b/rkramesh/archive/2012/01/17/how-to-add-active-directory-module-in-powershell-in-windows-7.aspx
 
Cmdlet Description
Adds one or more service accounts to an Active Directory computer.
Adds users, computers, and groups to the Allowed List or the Denied List of the read-only domain controller (RODC) Password Replication Policy (PRP).
Applies a fine-grained password policy to one more users and groups.
Adds one or more members to an Active Directory group.
Adds a member to one or more Active Directory groups.
Clears the expiration date for an Active Directory account.
Disables an Active Directory account.
Disables an Active Directory optional feature.
Enables an Active Directory account.
Enables an Active Directory optional feature.
Gets the Active Directory security groups that contain an account.
Gets the resultant password replication policy for an Active Directory account.
Gets one or more Active Directory computers.
Gets the service accounts that are hosted by an Active Directory computer.
Gets the default password policy for an Active Directory domain.
Gets an Active Directory domain.
Gets one or more Active Directory domain controllers, based on discoverable services criteria, search parameters, or by providing a domain controller identifier, such as the NetBIOS name.
Gets the members of the Allowed List or the Denied List of the RODC PRP.
Gets the resultant password policy of the specified ADAccount on the specified RODC.
Gets one or more Active Directory fine-grained password policies.
Gets the users and groups to which a fine-grained password policy is applied.
Gets an Active Directory forest.
Gets one or more Active Directory groups.
Gets the members of an Active Directory group.
Gets one or more Active Directory objects.
Gets one or more Active Directory optional features.
Gets one or more Active Directory OUs.
Gets the Active Directory groups that have a specified user, computer, or group.
Gets the root of a domain controller information tree.
Gets one or more Active Directory service accounts.
Gets one or more Active Directory users.
Gets the resultant password policy for a user.
Installs an Active Directory service account on a computer.
Moves a domain controller in AD DS to a new site.
Moves operation master (also known as flexible single master operations or FSMO) roles to an Active Directory domain controller.
Moves an Active Directory object or a container of objects to a different container or domain.
Creates a new Active Directory computer.
Creates a new Active Directory fine-grained password policy.
Creates an Active Directory group.
Creates an Active Directory object.
Creates a new Active Directory OU.
Creates a new Active Directory service account.
Creates a new Active Directory user.
Removes an Active Directory computer.
Removes one or more service accounts from a computer.
Removes users, computers, and groups from the Allowed List or the Denied List of the RODC PRP.
Removes an Active Directory fine-grained password policy.
Removes one or more users from a fine-grained password policy.
Removes an Active Directory group.
Removes one or more members from an Active Directory group.
Removes an Active Directory object.
Removes an Active Directory OU.
Removes a member from one or more Active Directory groups.
Removes an Active Directory service account.
Removes an Active Directory user.
Changes the name of an Active Directory object.
Resets the service account password for a computer.
Restores an Active Directory object.
Gets Active Directory user, computer, and service accounts.
Modifies user account control (UAC) values for an Active Directory account.
Sets the expiration date for an Active Directory account.
Modifies the password of an Active Directory account.
Modifies an Active Directory computer.
Modifies the default password policy for an Active Directory domain.
Modifies an Active Directory domain.
Sets the domain functional level for an Active Directory domain.
Modifies an Active Directory fine-grained password policy.
Modifies an Active Directory forest.
Sets the forest mode for an Active Directory forest.
Modifies an Active Directory group.
Modifies an Active Directory object.
Modifies an Active Directory OU.
Modifies an Active Directory service account.
Modifies an Active Directory user.
Uninstalls an Active Directory service account from a computer.
Unlocks an Active Directory account.

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