Active Directory Users and Computers: Ultimate Management and Security Guide

Originally published on https://www.virtualizationhowto.com on April 28, 2023 by Brandon Lee.

Managing and maintaining Active Directory (AD) in today’s enterprise environments is crucial to day-to-day operations. Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) is a central component of this management process with Active Directory Domain Services on-premises.

Let’s look at Active Directory Users and Computers, AD Domain Services, and the various tools and features available for managing users, computers, and other AD objects. Note, you will need to be a member of the domain admins group to manage and configure aspects of the Active Directory domain effectively.

Understanding Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)

Active Directory Users and Computers is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that provides a graphical interface for managing Active Directory objects, including an Active Directory user account, member Windows servers, object properties, reset user accounts, etc.

With ADUC, administrators can manage Active Directory user accounts, computer accounts, groups, and organizational units (OUs) within an Active Directory domain.