I routinely see organizations big and small still using “regular” Active Directory user accounts as service accounts. Typically, they have the password for those service accounts set to never expire or an alternate password policy that only requires the password is changed yearly. If your organization is managing service...
Windows Server 2012 R2
PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) How-To for Beginners (Pull Mode)
This script will accomplish 3 things; configure a pull server, create a basic configuration to be pulled by a target node, and create a Local Configuration Manager configuration for the target node. Execute the following code on the Pull Server: # Step 1 Install xPSDesiredStateConfiguration Install-Module -Name xPSDesiredStateConfiguration #...
PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) How-To for Beginners (Push Model)
In this video, I cover only a few very basic PowerShell Desired State Configuration Manager (DSC) concepts. 1. The terminology 2. How to create a Local Configuration Manager (LCM) configuration 3. How to push the LCM configuration to the target node 4. How to create a basic DSC configuration...
Group Policy Management Tips
Create an HTML report of Active Directory Forest Information with PowerShell
The intent of this script is to quickly get some basic information about an Active Directory infrastructure. I have used it when I’m doing some work on an environment I’m not familiar with, it gives you a quick look at what you’re dealing with without a whole lot of...
Create Mail Enabled Users in Bulk with Password verification using PowerShell
This is a simple script that will read the contents of a CSV file and create a new Active Directory User as well as a new Exchange Mailboxes for each object (row in the spreadsheet). You can select which Organizational Unit you want to put the Users in as...
Remote Computer Inventory with PowerShell
This script uses WMI CMDlets for the most part, to gather some client hardware and software information remotely over the network. Click the link below to see the contents of the CSV file. I use it to collect the following information: Computer Name Manufacturer Model Processor Type System Type Operating system...
How to get the last user logged into a computer with PowerShell
As an Administrator, I have been asked more than once to find out where a computer is on the network. This question is usually asked by someone that needs to inventory or lifecycle the equipment. If your IT department is well organized or you have some sort of 3rd...
Protect Active Directory Organizational Units from Accidental Deletion with PowerShell
Today we’re talking a little more about Active Directory reconnaissance, for lack of a better term. If I start a new job, the first thing I want to do is find out how my infrastructure is configured. This script will search through Active Directory, or a subset of Active...
Create New Active Directory Users in Bulk with Password verification
More Active Directory PowerShell goodness… this time, creating Active Directory User objects in bulk using a CSV file. You will see 2 different code blocks below. The first, is as simple as you can get using minimal parameters and code. The second code block includes more parameters and addresses...
12