PowerShell Script to Get All AD Users Easily

Use the PowerShell command Get-ADUser -Filter * to retrieve all Active Directory users in your domain.

Examples

InputGet-ADUser -Filter *

OutputDistinguishedName : CN=John Doe,OU=Users,DC=example,DC=com Name : John Doe ObjectClass : user ...

InputGet-ADUser -Filter * | Select-Object Name, SamAccountName

OutputName SamAccountName ---- -------------- John Doe jdoe Jane Smith jsmith ...

InputGet-ADUser -Filter * -Properties EmailAddress | Select-Object Name, EmailAddress

OutputName EmailAddress ---- ------------ jdoe [e-mail] jsmith [e-mail] ...

How to Think About It

To get all Active Directory users, you use the Get-ADUser cmdlet with a filter that matches all users. The filter * means 'all'. You can then select which user properties to show.

Algorithm

1

Open PowerShell with Active Directory module loaded.

2

Run <code>Get-ADUser</code> with filter <code>*</code> to get all users.

3

Optionally select specific user properties to display.

4

Output the list of users.

Code

powershell

Import-Module ActiveDirectory
$allUsers = Get-ADUser -Filter *
$allUsers | ForEach-Object { Write-Output $_.Name }

Output

John Doe
Jane Smith
Alice Johnson
...

Dry Run

Let's trace getting all users and printing their names.

1

Run Get-ADUser -Filter *

Returns a list of user objects: [User1, User2, User3]

2

ForEach user, output the Name property

Prints: John Doe, Jane Smith, Alice Johnson

User Object	Name Output
User1	John Doe
User2	Jane Smith
User3	Alice Johnson

Why This Works

Step 1: Import Active Directory Module

The Import-Module ActiveDirectory command loads the AD cmdlets needed to query users.

Step 2: Get All Users

The Get-ADUser -Filter * command fetches all user accounts from AD.

Step 3: Output User Names

Looping through each user object and printing Name shows readable user names.

Alternative Approaches

Using LDAP Filter

powershell

Get-ADUser -LDAPFilter "(objectClass=user)"

This uses LDAP syntax to get all users; useful if you prefer LDAP filters.

Get Specific Properties

powershell

Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties EmailAddress | Select-Object Name, EmailAddress

Fetches users with their email addresses for more detailed info.

Export to CSV

powershell

Get-ADUser -Filter * | Select-Object Name, SamAccountName | Export-Csv -Path users.csv -NoTypeInformation

Saves the user list to a CSV file for reporting or sharing.

Complexity: O(n) time, O(n) space

Time Complexity

The command queries all users once, so time grows linearly with the number of users.

Space Complexity

Storing all user objects requires memory proportional to the number of users.

Which Approach is Fastest?

Using -Filter * is straightforward and efficient; LDAP filters may be slightly faster in complex queries.

Approach	Time	Space	Best For
Get-ADUser -Filter *	O(n)	O(n)	Simple full user list
Get-ADUser -LDAPFilter	O(n)	O(n)	Advanced LDAP queries
Export to CSV	O(n)	O(n)	Saving data for reports