Overview
Once you have connected to your Active Directory database, the next step is to select the user accounts you want to modify. There are four simple ways you can import users into the Bulk AD Users interface, which will be discussed in the remainder of this article. Once you have imported users into the Bulk AD Users application, any subsequent imports are cumulative; The previously selected user accounts remain in the grid and any new user acconts will be added in addition to those existing user accounts. A clear grid feature can be used to clear your existing selection.
1. From List
The “From List” dialog allows you to enter the usernames you want to modify in a textbox or load them from a text file. Click the “From List” button on the toolbar to launch the dialog box below:
Simply enter the usernames you want to modify one per line of text and click the “OK” button to import those user accounts. You can also click the folder icon to load the usernames from an existing text file.
2. From OU (Organizational Unit)
The “From OU” dialog allows you to select one or more containers/organizational units to search for users accounts. To load users from an organizational unit, click the “From OU” button on the toolbar to load the dialog box below:
Expand the tree as required and select the containers/organizational units you want to include in the search. The default mode is “subtree” which means the selected container and all it’s child containers will be included in the search. The “One Level” mode can be selected if you don’t want to include child containers.
After making your selection, simply click the “OK” button to search for user accounts in the selected OUs.
3. From Query
The “From Query” dialog is similar to the “From OU” dialog, but it allows you to include a search filter to limit the user accounts returned in the query. For example, you might just be interested in enabled user accounts, accounts that have been created in the last few days or users from a specific department. Click the “From Query” button on the toolbar to launch the dialog below.
In part one, you select one or more containers/organizational units to include in the search. The entire domain subtree is selected by default to search for all user accounts in the domain. Click the “Change” button to limit the search to specific organizational units and you will be presented with a dialog box the same as the one shown in the “From OU” section of this article.
In part two, you are able to enter a filter to use for the search by either entering the required filter manually, or selecing from an existing pre-defined filter. Click the “OK” button when you are ready to search for user accounts.
Click here for more information on the From Query dialog
4. From Group
The “Select Group” dialog allows you to select one or more groups and return all the members of those groups. Click the “From Group” button on the toolbar to display the dialog box below:
Simply select the groups you are interested in and click the “OK” button to return the members of those groups. You can select multiple groups by holding down the CTRL key as you make your selection. The default option is to include members from nested groups in addition to direct members of the selected group. You can include just the direct members of the group by unchecking the “Include Nested Members” option.
To make it easy to find the groups you are interested in, a search feature is included. Enter the text you want to search for, select the comparison type and click search to return the groups matching your search criteria. You can also select specific group types from the “Group Types” tab to limit the groups returned by the search.
Preview Selected User Accounts
The user accounts you have selected will appear in the grid as shown below. You can remove users from the list by highlighting the row(s) and clicking the “Delete” key on your keyboard.
You are now ready to perform bulk updates to the selected user accounts.