The Quest AD cmdlets will run in Powershell 1.0, 2.0, Windows XP /Win 7 /Win 2008.
For PowerShell 2.0 Microsoft provide an Active Directory module for Windows 7/2008 only.
After installing, make the cmdlets available by loading the Quest Active Roles snap-in:
PS C:> Add-PSSnapin Quest.ActiveRoles.ADManagement
Get-QADComputer Retrieve computer objects that match specified conditions. Connect-QADService Connect to AD domain controller (or AD LDS) Disconnect-QADService Disconnect from an AD domain controller Get-QADGroup Retrieve groups that match specific conditions Set-QADGroup Modify attributes of group(s) New-QADGroup Create a new workgroup Get-QADGroupMember Retrieve members of a group Add-QADGroupMember Add one or more objects to a group Remove-QADGroupMember Remove one or more members from a group Get-QADMemberOf Retrieve group memberships of a particular object Get-QADUser Retrieve users that match specific conditions Set-QADUser Modify attributes of a user account New-QADUser Create a new user account Enable-QADUser Enable a user account Move-QADObject Move an object to a new OU Remove-QADObject Delete object(s) from Active Directory Rename-QADObject Rename an object in Active Directory Disable-QADUser Disable a user account Unlock-QADUser Unlock a user account Deprovision-QADUser Deprovision a user account in AD
Quest also provide cmdlets for managing AD Objects, AD ACLs, Password settings, Object security and Snap-In settings.
The functionality in the Microsoft and Quest cmdlets are not identical, both are likely to find a place in the toolkit of Windows System Administrators.
It is also possible to retrieve Active Directory (AD) information using native powershell commands using LDAP commands with the ADSI provider, this method does tend to become rather verbose for anything non-trivial:
$myOU = [adsi]"LDAP://CN=Jdoe,OU=TestOU,DC=ss64,DC=com"
$myOU | Get-Member
Related:
PowerGui Wiki - List of all the Quest cmdlets
Dmitry’s PowerBlog - Examples
.Net Framework 3.5 (Full) - or (Bootstrap) - Required for the Quest Snap-In
Installation tips for .Net 3.5
