Scripting Blog [archived]

Formerly known as the "Hey, Scripting Guy!" blog

How Can I Put New Users in the Same OU as the Person Creating Their Accounts?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! We use a script to create user accounts. How can I modify this script so that it will place the new user in the same OU as the person running the script?-- CB(image) (image) (image) Hey, CB. Interesting question. We’re assuming that you’ve delegated control of Active Directory. User A, for example, has the ...

How Can I Tell If an OU Has Any User Accounts In It?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I tell if an OU has any user accounts in it?-- RL(image) (image) (image) Hey, RL. As a matter of fact, there is a way to determine whether or not an OU contains any user accounts: all you have to do is search just that OU for nothing but user accounts. When you perform a search, any “hits” (in this ...

How Can I Determine the OU a User Account Belongs To?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! How do I determine the OU a user account belongs to?-- CO(image) (image) (image) Hey, CO. Ah, yes: the OU a user belongs to. No doubt a lot of you are thinking, “Well, there’s probably an OU property of some kind in Active Directory that gives you that information. All you have to do is locate the user ...

How Can I Change a User’s Password?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I change a user’s password using a script?-- GO(image) (image) (image) Hey, GO. You didn’t indicate whether you wanted to change the password for a local user or for an Active Directory user. But that’s OK: the processes are so similar we’ll go ahead and show you how to do both. It’s like ...