PowerShell New-AdUser

Windows PowerShell New-AdUser Cmdlet

The emphasis on this page is on getting started, learning how to create a script that generates new accounts in Active Directory.

Once you have mastered the basics of New AdUser then you can expand your horizons with Import-CSV, or copying existing users with the -Instance parameter.

Topics PowerShell New-AdUser

• Preparation: Checklist for New-AdUser
• Example 1: New-AdUser Basic Syntax
• Example 2: New-AdUser -enable and -passwordNotRequired
• Example 3: New-AdUser Copy an Existing Account with -Instance
• Example 4: New-AdUser -accountPassword

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Preparation: Checklist for New-AdUser

a) Logon: At a Domain Controller
b) Find: Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell
c) Launch: The PowerShell executable
d) Run: Import-Module activedirectory

Example 1: New-AdUser Basic Syntax

To get started with PowerShell’s New-AdUser cmdlet you only need to provide values for the -name and -path parameters.

Note 1:  I have introduced the variables $Newbie and $Box to encourage you to change these mandatory values to suit your domain.

Note 2: The $i variable just enables us to run the script again and again without getting duplicate user errors.  When testing I like to append -passThru so that PowerShell displays what it has just created.

Example 2: New-AdUser -enable and -passwordNotRequired

This example makes the account ready for use with -enable $True.  To prevent errors it also sets the value of password to a random value.

Note 3: Usually, I prefer to explicitly include the -name parameter, rather than just implying that $Newbie is the LDAP name property from its position (1st).  The reason I omitted here is so that I could draw attention to the fact that -name and -SamAccountName are two different properties, in these examples they just happen to have the same values.

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Example 3: New-AdUser Copy an Existing Account with -Instance

Here is a neat technique to copy an existing ‘template’ account, and just substitute the unique values for this new user.

Note 4: It’s worth studying how this script employs the $Template variable to get details of an account with a SamAccountName of "Worker".

Note 5: The crucial parameter here is -Instance, it reads all the LDAP values from the "Worker" account and merely substitutes the -name.  Naturally, for a production script you could add other LDAP properties such as Surname, and replace the -passwordNotRequired parameter with -accountPassword.

Example 4: New-AdUser -accountPassword

Because setting account passwords can be tricky, until now, I have swerved the problem with -passwordNotRequired.  When you try setting a real password, not only could there be ultra-complex policies in force, but also the ConvertTo-SecureString syntax is by no means straightforward.

The crucial addition to previous scripts is this parameter:
-accountPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText "P@ssword2" -Force)

Note 6: As with the other examples, you may wish to amend the value of $Box, and indeed, modify "P@ssword2".

Note 7: If you wish to find out more about setting passwords with New-AdUser, the key parameter begins with ‘a’ for accountPassword, and not ‘p’.

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Troubleshooting New-AdUser

If you cannot get these PowerShell examples to work, instead you get a message saying: 
The term ‘New-AdUser’ is not recognized …..  then I suggest you troubleshoot with these two commands:

If you suspect that the Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell has not loaded, then see more about installing activedirectory modules.

Learn About New-AdUser With Get-Help -full

This is how I discovered the -enable and -passwordNotRequired parameters.

Note 8: Amongst the zillions of parameters you maybe interested in trying -passThru.  What it does is display information about the object(s) that you have just created.

Researching Similar Active Directory Cmdlets

Once you have mastered New-AdUser, you may wish to know more about similar active directory tools.  To obtain a comprehensive list of the AD cmdlets try this command:

Amongst the results you should see:

• Add-AdGroupmember
• Enable-AdAccount
• Get-AdUser
• Move-AdComputer
• New-AdComputer
• Set-AdUser
• Remove-AdGroup
• UnLock-AdAccount

Note 9: Naturally, you can also use these verbs and nouns in other combinations.

Summary of PowerShell New-AdUser

My mission is to get you started with New-AdUser.  Once you can create one user account, then it’s not too difficult to expand the principles to create really useful scripts, -Instance saves work by copying a template user.

See more PowerShell Active Directory Cmdlets

• PowerShell Home  • Get-AdUser -filter  • Get-AdUser  • New-AdUser  • Get-AdComputer

• Export-CSV  • Import CSV  • PowerShell Active Directory  • New-AdComputer

• PowerShell Codeplex  • PowerShell Ad Cmdlets  • Free Import User CSVDE Tool

Please email me if you have a better example script. Also please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to correct the fault.