Active Directory Cookbook

6.31. Modifying the Default Display Name Used When Creating Users in ADUC

Problem

You want to modify how the default display name gets generated when you create a new user through the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. Open ADSI Edit.

2. In the Configuration Naming Context browse to DisplaySpecifiers → <Locale> where <Locale> is the locale for your language (e.g., the US English locale is 409).

3. Double-click on cn=user-Display.

4. Edit the createDialog attribute with the value you want the new default to be (e.g., %<sn>, %<givenName>).

5. Click OK.

Using VBScript

' This code modifies the default ADUC display name.
' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------
strNewDefault = "%<sn>, %<givenName>"
strForestName = "<ForestDNSName>"     ' e.g. rallencorp.com
' ------ END CONFIGURATION ---------

Set objRootDSE = GetObject("LDAP://" & strForestName & "/RootDSE")
Set objDispSpec = GetObject("LDAP://cn=User-Display,cn=409," & _
                              "cn=DisplaySpecifiers," & _
                              objRootDSE.Get("ConfigurationNamingContext"))
objDispSpec.Put "createDialog", strNewDefault
objDispSpec.SetInfo
WScript.Echo "New default for user's display name has been set to: " & _
              strNewDefault

Discussion

When you create a new user object in the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in, it will automatically fill in the Full Name field as you type in the First Name, Initials, and Last Name fields. As a convenience, you may want to alter that behavior so that it automatically fills in a different value. To ...