Quest AD cmdlets for PowerShell (Download)

The Quest AD cmdlets will run in PowerShell 1.0 and above, for PowerShell 2.0 Microsoft provide an Active Directory module. 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.

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.

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

“More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity” ~ Francois Gautier

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