Microsoft® PowerShell, VBScript and JScript® Bible

Chapter 15. Introducing Active Directory Services Interfaces

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Getting to know ADSI

• Taking advantage of ADSI

• Understanding ADSI paths

• Understanding ADSI objects

• Accessing directory services

With Active Directory Service Interfaces, you can manage local accounts, domain accounts, Windows services, and other resources through Windows scripts. ADSI is very complex and is designed primarily for programmers that use Visual Basic or C++. Because of this complexity, you'll need to learn a few important concepts before you can start working with ADSI, which are exactly what this chapter covers. Don't worry; we won't try to teach you Visual Basic or C++ programming. We won't try to cover every facet of ADSI either. Instead, we'll focus on the core tasks that you can use time and again to manage network and system resources.

Note

Rather than provide a ton of background material that you may not need, the focus of this chapter is on using ADSI and not on directory service basics. If you aren't familiar with directory services, you may want to brush up on the basics. A good resource for Active Directory is Windows Server 2008 Administrator's Pocket Consultant. Chapters 7 through 11 cover Active Directory in detail.

ADSI Essentials

Directory services are an important part of many network operating systems, including Novell NetWare and Microsoft Windows. In Novell NetWare, the directory service is called Novell NetWare Directory Services (NDS). In Microsoft Windows, the directory service ...