delete garbage computer accounts

[emre ozkan]

hi;

i want to delete computer accounts which are not in use from active
directory. How can i find inactive computer accounts and delete them any
idea

thanks

 

[Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]]

Emre,

Take a look at http://www.joeware.net and go to the free C++ tools. Look
for 'oldcmp'. This is a really nice tool that has a lot of built in
features that help you to avoid doing anything by accident. For example,
you can first run a report ( by using the /report /format dhtml /sh ) to
obtain a listing of all the computers which have not change their password
in the last 40 days ( defaults to 90 so you have to use the /age 40
switch ). You can visually check things out. You can then disable all of
those accounts ( by using the /disable /unsafe /forreal switches ). Once
those account have been disabled ( and only then ) can you delete them.

HTH,

Cary

 

[emre ozkan]

hi

do you know that computer accounts password change time attribute replicates
to all dc in a domain?

thanks

 

[Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]]

I believe that with WINNT the time frame was seven days. However, with
WIN2000 it is 30 days.

Cary

 

[Phil Gilbert]

Hello
I've had exactly the same problem with all those garbage computer accounts
left in AD. By running some scripts I found on the internet I realized that
there were a lot of them in my Active Directory. After some further
investigation I found an appropriate tool for the job, active directory
janitor (http://www.adjanitor.com). It will show you which accounts can be
deleted and lots of more information. If you ask me, MS should have included
this kind of functionality right out of the box! Anyway, the licensed
version is just 50$ away so it's not a big deal and then you can also delete
the computer accounts that matches your search criteria.

// Phil