Active Directory Management Tools - Administrator

Last reviewed on December 8, 2011

The Active Directory is supposed to make it easy to control users and groups, but managing it can be difficult. The tools on this page are for the administrator to use.

Tools end users can use to update their own records are located at Active Directory User Update Tools.

Tools in the Spotlight

Blackbird Auditor

Blackbird tracks all Active Directory and File Server changes as they occur and allows you to undo the changes from a single interface. Auditor tells you who made the change, what the change was, including new and previous values, when, where, and why the change was made. All without event logs. See why Windows IT Pro awarded the gold to Blackbird over Quest and NetIQ for auditing, compliance reporting, protection and recovery.

Profiler

Profiler gives the typical end user the ability to update their directory information (telephone number, office location etc) using their browser. Supports password management. Reset Passwords with security questions. Updating membership of Groups and Distribution lists are supported. Because the software is web based, deploying the solution is as easy as giving your users the correct URL or adding a link to your intranet. Supports Exchange 200x and LDAP SSL for secure connections.

Tools

Account Management Spreadsheet

This program is designed to provide a quick and effective method of creating a large quantity of user accounts. In comparison to Microsoft's own bulk import tool, csvde, this program is easier to use and supports some options that are unavailable in csdve. Create user accounts and exchange mailboxes, if required. Option to create work areas with custom NTFS security applied. Support for most common user attributes. Configure group membership Enable/Disable user accounts.

Active Directory Plus

Active Directory Plus is an easy to use, drag & drop application based on Microsoft's Active Directory Users and Computers. It offers the following functionality: -- Exchange 2003, 2007 and 2010 support -- Active Directory Access and Functionality restriction via so called Active Directory Plus Profiles -- central logging and Roll Back of any changes made to your Active Directory or Network environment

activeImport

activeImport will automatically keep your Active Directory user information up-to-date including Telephone Numbers, Departmental Information, Company Information, Addresses, and more. Use all employee information in your existing databases in Active Directory and view this directly in Outlook.

AD Bulk Contacts

Active Directory Contact Import Tool. Import, modify or delete Active Directory Contacts in bulk, mail-enable contacts on import. Can be automated to keep Contacts up to date.

AD Bulk Users

AD Bulk Users makes importing and modifying large numbers of Active Directory Users easy. You can import simple or very detailed account information such as Passwords, Group Membership, Expiry Date, Profile locations, Exchange Mailbox and many more attributes. The import file is constructed in the simple CSV (comma separated value) format.

AD Info

A free active directory reporting tool with a modern user friendly interface and over 140 predefined reports, as well as the option to create your own. AD Info has been designed to be easy to use, fast, and flexible - an example of this flexibility is the fact that you can enter your own values 'on the fly' for many of the predefined queries (as well as your own custom queries). For example instead of just having a "Members Of Domain Admins" query as most AD reporting tools do, AD Info has a "Members Of Specified Group" query that lets you specify any group in your domain. Query results are exportable to CSV, TXT, or HTML file format.

AD Tidy

A completely free tool to clean up inactive user and computer accounts in your Active Directory domain. This application will search your Active Directory domain for user/computer accounts that match your search criteria (for example all users in a specific OU that have not logged on for 60 days), then you can perform a number of actions on the accounts that were found - such as moving them to another OU, disabling them, removing them from all groups, and many more.

ADAudit Plus

ADAudit Plus is a valuable security tool that will help you be compliant with all the IT regulatory acts. With this tool, you can monitor user activity such as logon, file access, etc. A configurable alert system warns you of potential threats.

Adaxes

Adaxes by Softerra is a comprehensive solution for management, administration and monitoring of Active Directory. It helps to automate and secure user provisioning and de-provisioning in Active Directory environments, guarantees high-performance user lifecycle management for any enterprise. Adaxes allows simplifying, automating and securing the management of Microsoft Exchange (2003, 2007, and 2010). Also provides distribution list management capabilities to Exchange.

ADDelegates

Use U-BTech's ADDelegates to manage recipient and mailbox folder permissions. Delegate control, including the "Deliver meeting requests" setting, outlook folder permissions, Free/Busy options for controlling the time, subject and location details are now at your Active Directory MMC.

ADManager Plus

ADManager Plus 6 is a major upgrade with provisions to automate several Identity and Management operations in Active Directory. Highlights: Automation policies:, Customizable User modification templates:, User modification rules, GPO management, Enhanced Workflow and much more.

ADO++

ADO++ is a management Tool for Exchange 2010/2007/2003 and Active Directory. With ADO++ the administrator can edit all attributes of an AD-Object with one tool, including managing mailbox rights in Exchange 2010/2007. ADO++ additionally has a GUI for restoring deleted objects and a GUI for managing the new Exchange 2010 RBAC feature. The program is multilingual (English and German).

ADSynch Light

ADSynch Light is a lightweight Active Directory, Exchange and LDAP synchronization tool, enabling you to easily and securely synchronize two or more directories using optimized dotNet technologies. Set a few parameters within the GUI, like user credentials, select the attributes and the objects you want to synchronize and you can start keeping two LDAP directories in synch with each other using any data transformation you like, e.g. for enabling mail communication, user migration, etc. ADSynch Light is not a directory or a metadirectory, it simply synchronises directory information.

Compass Active Directory Monitoring

Compass AD Monitoring monitors all domain controllers in your active directory in realtime. Compass automatically validates your Domain Controller DNS settings and verifies all key services and replication.

Corporate Directory

Corporate Directory is an automatic phone book utility that reads contact information from Microsoft Active Directory. It runs as a try icon and allows you to find any contact in your organization in less than 1 second using simple yet powerful search. It has many useful features such as: display photos, user update contact details back to AD, export to Excel, works off line. This phone book does not require a server and needs no configuration. After the install the application will find your Active Directory and start reading contact information automatically.

Directory Mate

There's no programming required or any complicated process to learn to use Directory Mate. MADSolutions Directory Mate makes importing and exporting directory information easy using a step by step wizard.

ENow Management System

The ENow Management System has been updated to include new monitoring and reporting features for Exchange, Blackberry, Active Directory and SharePoint servers. EMS 5.0 now provides the ability to monitor all the key aspects of Hybrid deployments, including the ADFS infrastructure, DirSync and the Exchange Online infrastructure. Supports Exchange 2003/2007/2010/2013, SharePoint, and Office365. Version 5

Ensim Group Manager

Ensim Group Manager for Active Directory & Exchange automates the provisioning and maintenance of security and distribution groups. Ensure users are accurately and automatically provisioned and de-provisioned. Enforce security and compliance requirements while reducing maintenance cost. Features include Employee self-service group management, IT policy enforcement for security and compliance. Create, edit, delete, and clone groups via easy to use portal. Auto-populated distribution groups. Multiple owner of distribution group. Bulk import and export of group members.

Exchange Tasks 2007

U-BTech's Exchange Tasks 2007 extends the ADUC snap-in to include all the great management tools and screens we have all gotten used to over the years, with some major improvements like bulk object changes and more...

Exchange Tasks 2010

U-BTech's Exchange Tasks 2010 extends the ADUC snap-in to include all the great management tools and screens we have all gotten used to over the years, with some major improvements like bulk object changes and more...

Exclaimer Outlook Photos

Outlook Photos from Exclaimer makes it easy to add user photos to your Microsoft Exchange 2010 global address list (GAL). Like Contact and Social Connector photos, GAL photos display on contacts and email messages associated with that user. Free.

GALHider

GALHider allows network administrators to easily hide and show users in the Exchange Global Address List (GAL). GALHider is compatible with Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Server 2003.GALHider requires a network with Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange.

GALsync

Synchronize objects between multiple domains and forests - Share information securely between Exchange organizations. GALsync allows you to share Exchange mail-enabled objects of your Active Directory forest with other forests. Transfer types are ftp, windows shares and email. Encryption possible. Sharing objects helps users in one or both messaging organizations to access information about users and groups of the partner organization. Easy to use - simple in pricing, no additional software or hardware required. Works fine with Windows 200x and Exchange 200x. Version 2.5

GenerateSignature FromLDAP

Small signature generator for Microsoft Outlook, ideal for use in logon scripts. Outlook signature files are generated based on templates that pull data from Active Directory using LDAP.

GroupID

GroupID takes all of Imanami's core products and bundles them into a suite, integrating functionality and administration while still enabling them to function independently. With GroupID its easy to keep distribution and security groups up to date. Membership will always be accurate and outdated groups will be removed from your Global Address List (GAL).

GroupID Automate

Build distribution lists based on queries against the Exchange 5.5 directory or Active Directory, either with or without Exchange Server, or from files, databases, or other external sources. Also provides tools for managing all types of DLs and groups and printing DL lists.

JiJi Active Directory Management Suite

JiJi Active Directory Management Suite consists of three parts: JiJi Active Directory Reports extracts data from Active Directory and groups them logically as Reports, Its more than 450 out-of-box Active Directory Reports helps organization to gather information for regulatory auditing including SOX/PCI audits. JiJi Active Directory Cleaner automates the process of identifying and cleaning up the junk objects in the active directory. JiJi Active Directory Bulk Manager can perform, batch of AD operations at a time, such as creating multiple user entries, Bulk de-provisioning etc.

JiJi Active Directory Manager

Active Directory Manager supports provisioning and de-provisioning of user accounts in Active Directory & Microsoft Exchange. Inputs can be drafted in a CSV and fed into AD Manager.

JiJi AuditReporter

JiJi AuditReporter is a web based active directory auditing solution, which performs live monitoring of Active Directory (AD), without depending on native auditing, as a result, it generates audit reports on each and every events happened in the Active Directory(AD). Also generates audit reports on Exchange, GPO environments. This tool sends automated email notifications on, each and every AD changes. It also generates ad-hoc (real-time) reports on categories such as AD, Exchange, GPO, SharePoint, in response to the corresponding “Ldap” request, via JiJi AuditReporter’s UI

JiJi Password and Account Expiration Notification

JiJi Password Expiration Notification is a simple tool to notify users, managers and administrators through e-mail before their password and account expires. Administrator can receive the summary report to the specific email ids. Administrator can define the notification task for any specified target (Domain, an OU, Group, Users).

Keck Active Directory Manager

Keck Active Directory Manager, which requires IIS for a web server, is a web based active management tool that allows you to remotely and securely manage your Active Directory domain including the following features: Unlock / lock user accounts; Manage, create and delete user accounts and groups; Review, start and stop server services; Manage multiple types of system event logs; Review of export numerous Active Directory Reports. Keck will free system administrators to remotely manage their AD environments from any Web connected PC, Mac, Tablet and most mobile Web enabled devices.

Mailbox Manager

Symprex Mailbox Manager allows administrators to maintain mailbox properties, i.e. account information, for mailboxes on Exchange 5.5, 2000 and 2003. Account information can be listed and changed manually or automatically for any number of mailboxes. Update the company, department, office, assistant, contact telephone numbers etc., or set the custom attributes for any number of mailboxes, all at the click of a button. Symprex Mailbox Manager maintains account information and ensures valid up-to-date address lists.

Microsoft Active Directory Topology Diagrammer

The Active Directory Topology Diagrammer reads an Active Directory configuration using ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), and then automatically generates a Visio diagram of your Active Directory and /or your Exchange 200x Server topology. The diagrams include domains, sites, servers, administrative groups, routing groups and connectors and can be changed manually in Visio if needed.

Outlook Delegation Manager

Use U-BTech's Outlook Delegation Manager to manage recipient and mailbox folder permissions. Delegate control, including the "Deliver meeting requests" setting, outlook folder permissions, Free/Busy options for controlling the time, subject and location details are now at your Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) MMC Snap-In. U-BTech's Outlook Delegation Manager puts this control in your hands. Using the all new and revolutionary Exchange Web Services (EWS) interface available in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 and 2007.

Password Control/Bulk Password Control/Bulk Modify

For helpdesk staff its a simple interface for resetting AD passwords, disabling, enabling and unlocking accounts. For system admins, its a bulk password reset tool. Bulk Modify tool to change attribute values for many user accounts.

PeopleMinder

PeopleMinder is a simple, easy, and affordable way to alert users that their Windows password is about to expire. PeopleMinder allows administrators to schedule email notification to their end-users of an upcoming Active Directory password expiration. PeopleMinder is both a standalone product or available as an add-on to PeoplePassword.

PeopleSearch

Features added to PeopleSearch v.3 include the ability to target Active Directory views to specific groups or users, construct user, computer, and group reports against Active Directory, localize your installation using multilanguage support. PeopleSearch uses a web browser to retrieve information stored in the directory, such as telephone number, location, title, and manager. Administrators can customize PeopleSearch to set up searches for any object or attribute in the Active Directory, as well as configure how search results are displayed in the browser. Version 3.

PeopleUpdate

PeopleUpdate provides a web-based search and update interface for Microsoft Active Directory environments. PeopleUpdate allows for search, export, and update functionality from a web-based interface. PeopleUpdate allows for drop-down lists and input masks for controlling data being updated. Version 3.

Priasoft Migration Suite for Exchange

The new Priasoft Migration Suite for Exchange is a stand-alone, single-step Exchange migration solution for migrating from Exchange 5.5, 2000, 2003, or 2007 to Exchange 2000, 2003, 2007, or 2010. Priasoft Migration Suite for Exchange works without migration expertise or pricey product consultants, and combines all the tools you need to migrate. To see for yourself how Priasoft can easily and successfully manage your migration, visit our Web site for a FREE EVALUATION.

Spotlight on Active Directory

The Spotlight on Active Directory Pack provides you with the information you need to quickly resolve AD issues before they impact users. Identify replication, performance and availability problems, get real-time diagnostics and proactive problem resolution, and automate AD troubleshooting and repair.

Vyapin Active Directory Change Tracker

Vyapin Active Directory Change Tracker tracks, analyzes and reports all changes made to your Active Directory configuration. The tool audits all changes made to your Active Directory by periodically collecting only the changed data, reporting what exactly changed, along with the new and old values, when the change was made, where the change happened in your Active Directory and the tool also determines who made the change by looking up the Security Event logs of your audit-enabled Active Directory.

Vyapin Admin Report Kit for Active Directory (ARKAD)

Admin Report Kit for Active Directory is a comprehensive reporting solution for Active Directory, having been around for a long time since the early days of Active Directory. Perform a complete AD Security Audit – Determine Who has access to what in your Active Directory by reporting every object and its security in detail.

Z-Hire Employee Provisioning App

Z-Hire automates the IT account creation process for Exchange mailbox, Active Directory, Lync accounts and Office 365 cloud deployments. With just a click of the button, your Exchange mailbox, and Active directory and Lync accounts will be created simultaneously.

Written by

Diane Poremsky
A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999 and involved in IT support since 1985, Diane is the author of several books and video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.