How to Use PowerShell Get-ADUser- PowerShell Guideline
PowerShell is a powerful command-line tool used to automate administrative tasks in Windows operating systems. One of the most useful PowerShell cmdlets for managing user accounts in Active Directory is Get-ADUser.
In this article, we will explain how to use the PowerShell Get-ADUser cmdlet to retrieve user account information.
How To Use PowerShell Get-ADUser
Step 1: Open PowerShell
To start using PowerShell, press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box. Type “powershell” and press Enter. Alternatively, you can also search for PowerShell in the Start menu.
Step 2: Connect to Active Directory
Before you can retrieve user account information using the Get-ADUser cmdlet, you need to connect to Active Directory using the following command:
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Import-Module ActiveDirectory
Step 3: Use Get-ADUser to Retrieve User Account Information
To use Get-ADUser to retrieve user account information, you can use the following syntax:
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Get-ADUser -Identity <UserName> -Properties *
Replace <UserName> with the username of the user account you want to retrieve information for. The -Properties * parameter tells PowerShell to retrieve all properties of the user account.
For example, to retrieve information for a user account named “JohnDoe”, you can use the following command:
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Get-ADUser -Identity JohnDoe -Properties *
This will retrieve all properties of the “JohnDoe” user account, including the user’s full name, email address, phone number, account status, and more.
Step 4: Filter Results
If you only want to retrieve specific properties of a user account, you can use the -Properties parameter followed by a comma-separated list of properties you want to retrieve. For example, to retrieve only the user’s full name and email address, you can use the following command:
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Get-ADUser -Identity JohnDoe -Properties DisplayName,EmailAddress
This will only retrieve the user’s full name and email address.
You can also filter the results of the Get-ADUser cmdlet using the -Filter parameter. For example, to retrieve all user accounts whose last name starts with “Doe”, you can use the following command:
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Get-ADUser -Filter “Surname -like ‘Doe*'”
This will retrieve all user accounts whose last name starts with “Doe”.
Step 5: Export Results
If you want to export the results of the Get-ADUser cmdlet to a file, you can use the Export-Csv cmdlet. For example, to export the results of the previous command to a CSV file named “DoeUsers.csv”, you can use the following command:
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Get-ADUser -Filter “Surname -like ‘Doe*'” | Export-Csv -Path DoeUsers.csv -NoTypeInformation
This will export the results to a CSV file named “DoeUsers.csv” in the current directory.
Conclusion
PowerShell Get-ADUser is a powerful tool for managing user accounts in Active Directory. By following the steps above, you can use the Get-ADUser cmdlet to retrieve user account information, filter results, and export results to a file.
About PowerShell Command
PowerShell is a powerful command-line interface and scripting language used in Windows operating systems for performing administrative tasks. The Get-ADUser cmdlet is one of the many cmdlets available in PowerShell that allows administrators to retrieve information about Active Directory (AD) user accounts. In this article, we will provide a detailed explanation of the PowerShell Get-ADUser cmdlet, including its syntax, examples of its usage, and some of its common parameters.
Syntax of Get-ADUser Cmdlet
The syntax of the Get-ADUser cmdlet is as follows:
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Get-ADUser [-Identity] <ADUser> [-AuthType {Negotiate | Basic}] [-Credential <PSCredential>] [-Partition <String>] [-Properties <String[]>] [-Server <String>] [-ServicePrincipalName <String[]>] [-IncludeAllProperties] [-SearchBase <String>] [-SearchScope {Base | OneLevel | Subtree}] [<CommonParameters>]
Let’s discuss each parameter in detail.
- Identity: Specifies the AD user object to retrieve. You can specify the user’s distinguished name (DN), security identifier (SID), SAM account name, or user principal name (UPN). This parameter is mandatory.
- AuthType: Specifies the authentication method to be used to connect to the AD domain controller. The available options are Negotiate (default) and Basic.
- Credential: Specifies the credentials to use to authenticate the command. This parameter accepts a PSCredential object, which contains a username and password.
- Partition: Specifies the AD partition to search. The default value is the default domain partition.
- Properties: Specifies the AD user object properties to retrieve. By default, only a few properties are retrieved. This parameter accepts an array of property names.
- Server: Specifies the AD domain controller to connect to. The default value is the closest available domain controller.
- ServicePrincipalName: Specifies the service principal name (SPN) of the user. This parameter is used in conjunction with the -IncludeAllProperties parameter.
- IncludeAllProperties: Retrieves all properties of the user object, including extended properties and inherited properties.
- SearchBase: Specifies the search base for the query. This parameter restricts the scope of the search to a specific organizational unit (OU) or container.
- SearchScope: Specifies the scope of the search. The available options are Base (searches only the specified object), OneLevel (searches the immediate children of the specified object), and Subtree (searches the entire subtree of the specified object).
Examples of Get-ADUser Cmdlet
Let’s look at some examples of how to use the Get-ADUser cmdlet.
Example 1: Get information about a specific user
To retrieve information about a specific user, you can use the following command:
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Get-ADUser -Identity john.doe
This command retrieves the user object for the user with the SAM account name john.doe.
Example 2: Get information about multiple users
To retrieve information about multiple users, you can use the following command:
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Get-ADUser -Filter * | Select-Object Name,Enabled
This command retrieves all user objects in the default domain partition and displays the Name and Enabled properties for each user.
Example 3: Get information about a user in a specific OU
To retrieve information about a user in a specific OU, you can use the following command:
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Get-ADUser -Identity john.doe -SearchBase “OU=Sales,OU=Users,DC=Contoso,DC=com”
This command retrieves the user object for the user with the SAM account name john.doe in the Sales OU of the Contoso.com domain.
Common Parameters
Some of the common parameters that
FAQs:
Q: What is PowerShell Get-ADUser command used for?
A: The PowerShell Get-ADUser command is used to retrieve information about an Active Directory user account.
Q: How do I use PowerShell Get-ADUser?
A: To use PowerShell Get-ADUser, open PowerShell and type the following command:
Get-ADUser -Identity <Username>
Replace <Username> with the username of the Active Directory user account you want to retrieve information for.
Q: What kind of information can I retrieve with PowerShell Get-ADUser?
A: You can retrieve various types of information about an Active Directory user account with PowerShell Get-ADUser, such as the user’s display name, email address, phone number, department, and more.
Q: Can I use PowerShell Get-ADUser to retrieve information about multiple user accounts at once?
A: Yes, you can use PowerShell Get-ADUser to retrieve information about multiple user accounts at once by using filters and wildcards in the command.
Q: Are there any prerequisites for using PowerShell Get-ADUser?
A: Yes, you need to have the Active Directory PowerShell module installed on your computer and have appropriate permissions to retrieve information from Active Directory.
Q: What other PowerShell commands can I use to manage Active Directory?
A: There are various PowerShell commands available for managing Active Directory, such as Get-ADComputer, Set-ADUser, New-ADUser, Remove-ADUser, and more.
