Chapter 14. Users and security
This chapter covers
- Working with local users and groups
- Discovering antimalware software status
- Testing firewall state
- Listing firewall settings
If it wasn’t for the users we wouldn’t have our jobs. Sometimes it may seem that the users cause all our problems, but they’re an essential part of the IT environment. Honest! In this chapter, we’ll focus on administrating user accounts and also on security, related both to user accounts and external threats.
The majority of the user administration in a Windows environment occurs through Active Directory. The WMI connector for Active Directory is deprecated in Windows Server 8. Active Directory administration is best performed using the PowerShell cmdlets. However a significant amount of administration is still required for accounts local to a specific machine, and this is where WMI and PowerShell can be of assistance.
Tip
Chapters 5, 10, and 11 of my PowerShell in Practice book cover using PowerShell to administer Active Directory in great detail.
Most organizations have a set of procedures that are followed when people join or leave. This can include setting up user accounts, adding users to groups, creating mailboxes, and setting permissions on data shares. The WMI classes associated with users don’t really lend themselves to being involved in this activity, apart from the setting of permissions on file shares, as we discussed in chapter 8.