One of the things IT Administrators look to automate first is the new user creation process. I recently was going through the process of creating a new hires Active Directory login, Office 365 mailbox, and their Office 365 user account, and I wondered how I could make the process easier and quicker.

My focus was geared towards Managed Service Providers (MSP’s), Human Resource (HR) departments and general Help Desk Technicians. For MSP’s I wanted to create a tool that they could easily use across all of their clients because they may not spend the time to automate new user creations because they have hundreds, if not thousands of clients to tend to, and each client is unique so you can’t just copy the same automation script from one client to another. This would also be a huge asset for Help Desk technicians because they are more often than not the ones creating new users. This would speed up the entire process of making new hires AD logins as well as their Office 365 accounts. Lastly, I wanted to make a tool that was incredibly easy to use that it can be given to an HR department so they can create new users and Office 365 mailboxes without ever having to contact the IT department at all.

I also wanted to be able to have the option of creating just an Active Directory user, just an Office 365 user, or both.

When making a new user in Active Directory Users and Computers you can enter the following information:

• First name
• Initials
• Last name
• Full name
• User logon name

If you want to enter items like E-Mail, password, group permissions, login scripts, home drive, etc. you would have to complete the new user wizard, find and then edit your user in Active Directory, and then fill in the necessary information. But what if we could enter all that information during the user creation process? We could add the user to groups, give them profile information, address, company info, enable multi-factor authentication and more, all without having to leave the new user wizard.

 

---

User Interface

New Active Directory User

[five_sixth][/five_sixth][five_sixth_last]

[/five_sixth_last]

In the picture you can see the new Active Directory user creation wizard which lets you configure the following:

• First Name
• Initials
• Last Name
• Display Name
• Description
• Office
• Password (confirm your password and even generate a random password)
• Telephone Number
• E-Mail
• Web Page
• UserPrincipalName
• Specify an OU to place the new user in
• Password settings (change password, disabled, never expires, etc)
• Address (street, PO box, city, state, zip)
• Add your user to certain security groups
• Job Title
• Department
• Company
• Profile Path
• Logon Script
• Home Folder (drive letter and location)
• ProxyAddresses

Off the bat, you can configure much more options for your new users than if you created them in Active Directory Users and Computers.

New Office 365 User

[five_sixth][/five_sixth][five_sixth_last]

[/five_sixth_last]

Pictured is the new Office 365 user creation wizard which is a tab over from the Active Directory User wizard. One of the features included is to copy the attributes you entered for your Active Directory user to the Office 365 User wizard. This is beneficial if you don’t have ADSync set up and you create users manually. If ADSync is set up and found locally on the system, the manual user creation portion will be disabled and the checkbox to run a DirSync upon user creation will be enabled which will run a DirSync right after the Active Directory user gets created.

The Office 365 new user wizard will let you configure the following:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Display Name
• License
• Password (confirm your password and even generate a random password)
• UserPrincipalName
• Country Code
• Multi-Factor Authentication
• E-Mail
• Alias E-Mail Addresses
• Password Settings (change password at next logon, never expires, disabled)
• Address (street, city, state, zip code)
• Mail Groups (add your user to distribution groups, office 365 groups and mail-enabled security groups)
• Security Groups (add your user to security groups)
• Shared Mailboxes (grant your user Full Access, Send-As or Send on Behalf permissions on Shared Mailboxes, configure AutoMapping)
• Hide from Global Address List

---

Features

 

Full Logging

The console log will display everything it’s working on every step of the way. It will also display the PowerShell cmdlets, warnings and error messages.

Passwords

When creating your new user (AD or O365) you can either generate a random password or manually enter one in. PowerShell checks both strings and will not let you create your user if both passwords do not match. This ensures that it is entered correctly the first time.

Organizational Unit

When you create your Active Directory User you can specify which OU you want them to reside in by using the drop-down. If nothing is selected it will place them in whichever OU you configured new User objects to be placed in.

Active Directory Groups

You can check which groups you want your user to be a member of. This allows you to configure things such as permissions during the new user creation process instead of after.

Office 365 Friendly License Name and Assignment

When creating an Office 365 user you can assign them a license right away. AccountSKUs are converted to friendly names to make picking out a license easier.

Multi-Factor Authentication

If you set Multi-Factor Authentication to True then MFA will be turned on when the user signs in for the first time. They will be prompted to set up MFA (they can enter their cell phone number to receive the MFA token via text) upon their first logon.

Mail Groups

You can add your user to Distribution Groups, Mail-Enabled Security Groups or even Office 365 Groups in the Mail Groups tab.

Security Groups

To add your user to regular Security Groups in Office 365 just check the security group and they will automatically be a member.

Shared Mailboxes

In the Shared Mailboxes tab, you can grant your user Full Access, Send-As, or Send on Behalf of permissions on Shared Mailboxes. If you select Full Access you can also configure AutoMapping (if the mailbox will automatically appear in the users Outlook).

Dynamic Pre-Reqs

Certain fields are required prior to creating your user. These fields will have an asterisk and be in red. Once they have enough valid data the field will change to black and the asterisk will be removed. The “Create User” button will remain disabled until you have met all the pre-reqs to ensure your user is created without issues.

ADSync

If you have ADConnect/ADSync configured for your Office 365 tenant you can run it locally or against a remote server. ADSync will disable the manual user creation for Office 365 to allow you to automatically run an ADSync once your Active Directory User has been created.

Copy Attributes

When you go to create an Office 365 user, you have the option of copying the attributes you just entered for your Active Directory user. This is extremely beneficial in environments that do not have ADSync set up. Instead of entering everything twice, you can just click a button and everything will copy over.

Account Lockout

You can specify the exact time and date you want an account to be disabled. The application will also do DateMath to let you know how long until that account expires.

---

Prerequisites

1. PowerShell v3 or higher with Execution policy set to RemoteSigned or Unrestricted
2. MSOnline Module (If configuring O365 User)
3. Active Directory Module (If configuring AD Users, It can run on a domain joined machine with RSAT tools installed as well as on domain controllers)

---

Source and Download

The program and script are all open sourced and hosted on GitHub. If you would like to just download the .exe file you can find it here.

• GitHub Link
• Download EXE File

https://github.com/bwya77/Master-User-Creator