Guy’s Scripting Ezine 84 – Acctinfo.dll

Contents for Ezine 84 – Acctinfo.dll

• This Week’s Secret
• Mission to add Additional Account Info Property Tab
• Download Additional Account Info
• Learning Points
• Summary of Acctinfo

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This Week’s Secret

This week I have something a little different for you, not a script but a program called Acctinfo. What this simple add-on does is expose more properties for in Active Directory Users and Computers, for example lastLogon and Password Expires. 

What led me to discover this treasure called acctinfo.dll was research into an LDAP property called lastLogon.  The reason that I have not used acctinfo.dll before is that I usually call for ADSI Edit whenever I need to investigate such Active Directory attributes and values.  As far as I know, Acctinfo does not modify the schema.

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Mission – To add Additional Account Info Property Tab.

What I want to do is add an extra tab in Active Directory Users and Computers.  Amongst the extra information on this tab is, the lastLogon time, UserAccountControl value and Bad Password Count.

As we will see next week, scripting lastLogon is fraught with problems; however, displaying the Last Logon time with Active Directory Users and Computers tab makes it easier to see what is happening.

Download and Install Additional Account Info

1. Download acctinfo.dll or acctinfo in zip format
2. Copy acctinfo.dll to the %systemroot%\system32 folder
3. Register the service and dll with this command:
   regsvr32 acctinfo  (Similar to registering the schema snap-in)
4. Close, then open Active Directory Users and Computers. 

Learning Points

Note 1: My information is that you need to install acctinfo on the machine where you execute the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.

Note 2: In line with modern best practice, once you have registered acctinfo, there is no need to reboot your server.

Note 3: If you wish to remove the Additional Account Info tab, open a run command and type:
regsvr32 /u acctinfo

Note 4: Acctinfo is supplied free by Microsoft.

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Summary of Acctinfo

Download and try this cost-nothing add-on for Active Directory Users and Computers.  Acctinfo gives extra information about the last time a user logged on, also Bad Password count and the UserAccountControl value.  Download and install acctinfo.dll and get the Additional Account info tab of your users.

See Also

Windows Server 2003 Utilities

See more about VBScript

• VBScripts  • Ezines  • WMI  • Logon Scripts  • Tool Kit

• Ezine 26 SendKeys  • Ezine 34 Scriptomatic  • Ezine 47 .put  •Ezine 51 Sleep  • Ezine 52 OS

• Ezine 77 Scriptomatic  • Ezine 84 AcctInfo  • Ezine 88 Progress bar  • Ezine 89 SendKeys

• Ezine 97 Net Time  • Ezine 98 W32 Time  • Ezine 99 Time services  • Ezine 120 Sendkeys