Active Directory Cookbook

6.6. Renaming a User

Problem

You want to rename a user.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. Open the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.

2. In the left pane, right-click on the domain and select Find.

3. Type the name of the user and click Find Now.

4. In the Search Results, right-click on the user and select Rename.

5. You can modify the Full Name, Last Name, First Name, Display Name, User Principal Name (logon name), and SAM Account Name (pre-Windows 2000).

6. Click OK after you are done.

Using a command-line interface

The following command will rename the RDN of the user:

> dsmove "<UserDN>" -newname "<NewUserName>"

You can modify the UPN (-upn), First Name (-fn), Last Name (-ln), and Display Name (-display) using the dsmod user command. For example, the following command would change the user’s UPN and last name:

> dsmod user "<UserDN>" -upn "<NewUserUPN>" -ln "<NewUserLastName>"

Using VBScript

' This code renames the RDN of a user and the sAMAccountName attribute.
' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------
strParentDN    = "<ParentDN>"    ' e.g. cn=Users,dc=rallencorp,dc=com
strUserOldName = "<OldUserName>" ' e.g. jsmith
strUserNewName = "<NewUserName>" ' e.g. jim ' ------ END CONFIGURATION --------- set objCont = GetObject("LDAP://" & strParentDN) objCont.MoveHere "LDAP://cn=" & strUserOldName & "," & strParentDN, _ "cn=" & strUserNewName set objUser = GetObject("LDAP://cn=" & strUserNewName & "," & strParentDN) objUser.Put "sAMAccountName", strUserNewName objUser.SetInfo WScript.Echo "Rename successful" ...