Active Directory PowerShell Commands

by | Jun 14, 2013 | Active Directory, PowerShell

You can add Active Directory commands to PowerShell on a Windows 7 or Windows 8 workstation by adding the Remote Management Tools.

Use one of these links to install the PowerShell Active Directory module for your client.

Remote server administration tools for Windows 8: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28972

Remote server administration tools for Windows 7 SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7887

Once installed, You need to turn on the windows feature for “Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell” and import the module

  1. Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features
  2. Turn Windows features on or off
  3. Expand:
    Remote Server Administration Tools / Role Administration Tools / AD DS and AD LDS Tools
  4. Check “Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell”
  5. Select “OK”
  6. Load PowerShell
  7. Execute command:
    Import-Module -Name ActiveDirectory

This module includes popular commands such as:

Add-ADGroupMember
Clear-ADAccountExpiration
Disable-ADAccount
Get-ADUser
Get-ADComputer
Get-ADGroup
Get-ADGroupMember

You can get a full listing of the cmdlets included in the module with this command:
Get-Command -Module ActiveDirectory

Microsoft named all their commandlets starting with AD, so you can also get a full list of all the commands available using PowerShell’s help feature.  This will list any commands starting with AD and will list more than cmdlets:

Get-Help *-AD*