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How-To Technical

Saved Queries feature in Active Directory

This post focuses on custom queries that  allow you to perform additional tasks in Active Directory

Microsoft in Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) is a wonderful tool and is very useful when it comes to managing user / and computer accounts in your Domain.  It also has another feature which doesn’t get used often.  The feature I refer to is the ability to use Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) queries, saving them for later use.  These queries can be exported and shared by other administrators to find out day to day info such as expired user account, users with accounts locked out, etc.  You can locate this in ADUC under Saved Queries

 

Go to Active Directory Users and Computers:
Right click the Saved Queries folder and select New, Query.
Enter an appropriate Name and Description.
Make sure the query root is set to the domain level you want the query to pertain to.
Select the Include sub-containers check box if you want the query to search all sub-containers.
Click Define Query.
In the Find dialog box, click the Find drop-down arrow and select Custom Search.
On the Advanced tab, enter your LDAP query string into the Enter LDAP query box.
Click OK twice.

Here are some saved queries I have used

Users that have been given dial-in permissions
(objectCategory=user)(msNPAllowDialin=TRUE)

Users whose accounts are disabled
(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2))

Users that must change password at next logon
(objectCategory=user)(pwdLastSet=0)

List all groups that start with IN or SA
(objectCategory=group)(|(cn=IN*)(cn=SA*))

Find all Universal Groups
(groupType:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=8)

I think you get the idea at this point.
Here are some more saved queries I happen to find out there while Google Searching

 

Find Groups that contains the word admin
(objectcategory=group)(samaccountname=*admin*)

Find users who have admin in description field
(objectcategory=person)(description=*admin*)

Find all Universal Groups
(groupType:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=8)

Empty Groups with No Members
(objectCategory=group)(!member=*)

Finds all groups defined as a Global Group, a Domain Local Group, or a Universal Group
(groupType:1.2.840.113556.1.4.804:=14)

Find all User with the name Bob
(objectcategory=person)(samaccountname=*Bob*)

Find user accounts with passwords set to never expire
(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=65536)

Find all users that never log in to domain
(&(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user))(|(lastLogon=0)(!(lastLogon=*))))

Find user accounts with no log on script
(objectcategory=person)(!scriptPath=*)

Find user accounts with no profile path
(objectcategory=person)(!profilepath=*)

Finds non disabled accounts that must change their password at next logon
(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(pwdLastSet=0)(!useraccountcontrol:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2)

Finds all disabled accounts in active directory
(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(!useraccountcontrol:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2)

Finds all locked out accounts
(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(useraccountcontrol:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=16)

Finds Domain Local Groups
(groupType:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=4)

Finds all Users with Email Address set
(objectcategory=person)(mail=*)

Finds all Users with no Email Address
(objectcategory=person)(!mail=*)

Find all Users, Groups or Contacts where Company or Description is Contractors
(|(objectcategory=user)(objectcategory=group)(objectcategory=contact))(|(description=North*)(company=Contractors*))

Find all Users with Mobile numbers 712 or 155
(objectcategory=user)(|(mobile=712*)(mobile=155*))

Find all Users with Dial-In permissions
(objectCategory=user)(msNPAllowDialin=TRUE)

Find All printers with Color printing capability
Note: server name must be changed
(&(&(&(uncName=*Servername*)(objectCategory=printQueue)(printColor=TRUE))))

Find Users Mailboxes Overriding Exchange Size Limit Policies
(&(&(&objectCategory=user)(mDBUseDefaults=FALSE)))

Find all Users that need to change password on next login.
(&(objectCategory=user)(pwdLastSet=0))

Find all Users that are almost Locked-Out
Notice the “>=” that means “Greater than or equal to”.
(objectCategory=user)(badPwdCount>=2)

Find all Computers that do not have a Description
(objectCategory=computer)(!description=*)

Find all users with Hidden Mailboxes
(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(msExchHideFromAddressLists=TRUE))

Find all Windows 2000 SP4 computers
(&(&(&(objectCategory=Computer)(operatingSystem=Windows 2000 Professional)(operatingSystemServicePack=Service Pack 4))))

Find all Windows XP SP2 computers
(&(&(&(&(&(&(&(objectCategory=Computer)(operatingSystem=Windows XP Professional)(operatingSystemServicePack=Service Pack 2))))))))

Find all Windows XP SP3 computers
(&(&(&(&(&(&(&(objectCategory=Computer)(operatingSystem=Windows XP Professional)(operatingSystemServicePack=Service Pack 3))))))))

Find all Vista SP1 computers
(&(&(&(&(sAMAccountType=805306369)(objectCategory=computer)(operatingSystem=Windows Vista*)(operatingSystemServicePack=Service Pack 1)))))

Find All Workstations
(sAMAccountType=805306369)

Find all 2003 Servers Non-DCs
(&(&(&(samAccountType=805306369)(!(primaryGroupId=516)))(objectCategory=computer)(operatingSystem=Windows Server 2003*)))

Find all 2003 Servers – DCs
(&(&(&(samAccountType=805306369)(primaryGroupID=516)(objectCategory=computer)(operatingSystem=Windows Server 2003*))))

Find all Server 2008
(&(&(&(&(samAccountType=805306369)(!(primaryGroupId=516)))(objectCategory=computer)(operatingSystem=Windows Server 2008*))))