Set users HomeDirectory attribute in Active Directory with PowerShell

Last night I received a request to move a share that holds all users -HomeDirectory's' from an old file server to a newly configured Server 2012 R2 machine and to reconfigure every ones -HomeDirectory's' to point to the new share.

Sweet, this should be pretty fun, first I started by creating the new folder at C:\Shared\UserProfiles on the Server 2012 R2 box. For this I used the New-Item cmdlet as shown below.

001	New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path C:\Shared\UserProfiles -Verbose

     After Creating the new directory its ready to be shared, I have to say I really utilize PowerShell_ISE.exe and tab completion every time I create a new SMB or Server Message Block share with PSv3.0+

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New-SmbShare –Name UserProfiles `              –Path C:\Shared\UserProfiles `              –Description ‘User Profiles’ `              –FullAccess Administrator `              –ReadAccess Everyone `              -EncryptData $true `              -verbose

Here is some output: ( Note: the paths are not all aligned as I'm recreating the output from home.)

Next was to copy all of the data from the old server at location A to the new server at location B. For this I used robocopy by opening an administrative CMD prompt and running the below commands :

robocopy \\oldserver\shared \\newserver\shared

8 hours later I left work and the robocopy was still only about a 1/4th of the way through copying the data to the new share(100+ GBs). . Seeing how the data transfer didn't complete during my shift I ended up asking someone to keep an eye on it as the data transfers and then gave them the below script to run. I turned this script into a function weather that was a good idea or not... but I prefer functions so I went with one. :)  This function will go through all Active Directory users with Get-ADUser and filter them for only the accounts that have a P: drive set for their HomeDrive ( where {$_.HomeDrive -eq "P:"}). From there I used a foreach statement to set each user account and then ended it off with a Get-ADUser to display a formatted output to the screen.

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<# .Synopsis    Finds all users with a P: drive as their home drive and resets their homedirectory to equal the New Directory. .DESCRIPTION    Retrieves all users with A P: drive and then sets their Home Directory to whatever is specified. .EXAMPLE    Set-HomeDirectory .NOTES    **New HomeDirectory is hardcoded** .FUNCTIONALITY    PowerShell v3.0+ .EXAMPLE    PS C:\> Set-HomeDirectory -HomeDrive P: .CREATED BY     Matthew A. Kerfoot on 8/12/2014 #>                   [CmdletBinding()]             param([Parameter( Mandatory = $False,                               ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true )]                               $Share = "\\SERVERNAME\Shared",                   [Parameter( Mandatory = $False,                               ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true )]                               $HomeDrive = "P:",                   [Parameter( Mandatory = $False,                               ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true )]                               $VerbosePreference = "Continue"                 )         Begin{    # Find all users with a P: Drive                   Import-Module ActiveDirectory                   $users = Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties * |                            where {$_.homedrive -eq "P:"} |                            select -ExpandProperty samaccountname         }     Process{    # changes each users home drive and homedirectory                 foreach ($U in $Users)                 {                     Set-ADUser -Identity $U -HomeDrive $HomeDrive -HomeDirectory "$Share\$u" -Verbose                 }     }  End {   # gives a formated output of the changes          Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties * |          where {$_.HomeDrive -eq "$HomeDrive"} |          Select-Object samaccountname, homedrive, homedirectory `          #| Format-Table -AutoSize  }

Output:

And I just realized the time on this machine is 2 hours behind...

Until next time...

Pop up window with PowerShell

PowerShell popup with use of xaml for formatting the output. Enjoy! I know I did, I used this with a gpo login script to help remind users what to do...

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## creates the runspace $run = [RunspaceFactory]::CreateRunspace() $run.ApartmentState = “STA” $run.Open() ## opens PowerShell.exe $ps = {Add-Type -AssemblyName PresentationCore}.GetPowerShell() $ps.Runspace = $run ## specify xaml formatting $ps.AddScript({     [xml]$xaml = @"     <Window         xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation'         xmlns:x='http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml'         x:Name='Window' WindowStartupLocation = 'CenterScreen' Width = '1000' Height = '500' ShowInTaskbar = 'True' WindowStyle = 'None' AllowsTransparency = 'true'>         <Window.Background>             <SolidColorBrush Opacity= '0' ></SolidColorBrush>         </Window.Background>         <Grid x:Name = 'Grid' ShowGridLines='false' >             <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>                 <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>             </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>             <Grid.RowDefinitions>                 <RowDefinition Height = '*'/>             </Grid.RowDefinitions>             <Viewbox Stretch = 'Fill'>                 <Label x:Name='Content' FontWeight = 'Bold' Content = 'PowerShell Rules!' FontSize = '30' FontStyle = 'Normal' Foreground = 'Blue' />             </Viewbox>         </Grid>     </Window> "@     ## read xaml code     $reader=(New-Object System.Xml.XmlNodeReader $xaml)     $Global:popup=[Windows.Markup.XamlReader]::Load( $reader )     ## sets right click to "Close Window"     $popup.Add_MouseRightButtonUp({$this.close()})     ## sets left click to "Drag\move Window"     $popup.Add_MouseLeftButtonDown({$This.DragMove()})     ## Always on top of all other windows     $popup.Topmost = $True     $popup.ShowDialog() }).BeginInvoke() | Out-Null

Cleanup WinSxS

Cleanup WinSxS with PowerShell, remove features on demand in Windows Server 2012.

001	Get-WindowsFeature | where-object{$_.Installed -eq 0 -and $_.InstallState -eq 'Available'}

001	Get-WindowsFeature | where-object{$_.Installed -eq 0 -and $_.InstallState -eq 'Available'} | uninstall-windowsfeature -remove