In partnership with

Keep up with tech in 5 minutes

TLDR is the free daily email with summaries of the most interesting stories in startups, tech, and programming. The stuff worth knowing, minus the doomscrolling.

Issues are curated by ex-Google and Anthropic engineers and land in your inbox before your morning coffee. A 5-minute read, and you walk into the day already knowing what your team is still catching up on.

Tech is just the start. We also cover AI, marketing, dev, and more. Pick the briefs that match your work.

Free, daily, and read by 7M+ subscribers. Subscribe and let the experts do the digging for the tech news that matters.

Subscribe for Free

THE PROBLEM

Every Sysadmin has been there — HR emails you a list of new starters, leavers, and role changes. You spend the next two hours manually creating accounts, resetting passwords, disabling leavers, and updating group memberships. It's repetitive, error-prone, and a complete waste of your time. This week we automate the entire process from a CSV file.

THE SCRIPT

Save the script below to:

C:\Scripts\ADUserManagement.ps1

PowerShell

# Active Directory User Management Automation
# Automate & Operate — automateandoperate.com

# Settings — update these
$csvPath = "C:\Scripts\users.csv"
$from = "[email protected]"
$to = "[email protected]"
$smtpServer = "smtp.gmail.com"
$smtpPort = 587
$username = "[email protected]"
$password = ConvertTo-SecureString "yourpassword" -AsPlainText -Force
$credential = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($username, $password)
$logFile = "C:\Logs\ADUserManagement.log"
$defaultPassword = ConvertTo-SecureString "Welcome123!" -AsPlainText -Force

# Create log folder if missing
if (-not (Test-Path "C:\Logs")) {
    New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path "C:\Logs"
}

$timestamp = Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"
$log = @()

# Import CSV
$users = Import-Csv -Path $csvPath

foreach ($user in $users) {
    $action = $user.Action.Trim().ToUpper()
    $username = $user.Username.Trim()
    $firstName = $user.FirstName.Trim()
    $lastName = $user.LastName.Trim()
    $ou = $user.OU.Trim()
    $group = $user.Group.Trim()

    switch ($action) {
        "CREATE" {
            try {
                New-ADUser `
                    -Name "$firstName $lastName" `
                    -GivenName $firstName `
                    -Surname $lastName `
                    -SamAccountName $username `
                    -UserPrincipalName "$username@yourdomain.com" `
                    -Path $ou `
                    -AccountPassword $defaultPassword `
                    -Enabled $true `
                    -ChangePasswordAtLogon $true

                Add-ADGroupMember -Identity $group -Members $username
                $log += "$timestamp — CREATED: $username added to $group"
            } catch {
                $log += "$timestamp — FAILED CREATE: $username — $_"
            }
        }

        "DISABLE" {
            try {
                Disable-ADAccount -Identity $username
                $log += "$timestamp — DISABLED: $username"
            } catch {
                $log += "$timestamp — FAILED DISABLE: $username — $_"
            }
        }

        "RESET" {
            try {
                Set-ADAccountPassword -Identity $username -NewPassword $defaultPassword -Reset
                Set-ADUser -Identity $username -ChangePasswordAtLogon $true
                $log += "$timestamp — PASSWORD RESET: $username"
            } catch {
                $log += "$timestamp — FAILED RESET: $username — $_"
            }
        }
    }
}

# Write log
$log | ForEach-Object { Add-Content -Path $logFile -Value $_ }

# Send summary email
$emailBody = "AD User Management Summary — $timestamp`n`n"
$emailBody += $log -join "`n"
$emailBody += "`n`nAutomate & Operate — automateandoperate.com"

Send-MailMessage `
    -From $from -To $to `
    -Subject "AD Management Complete — $($log.Count) actions on $env:COMPUTERNAME" `
    -Body $emailBody `
    -SmtpServer $smtpServer -Port $smtpPort `
    -UseSsl -Credential $credential

YOUR CSV FILE FORMAT

Create a file called users.csv and save it to C:\Scripts\. Format it exactly like this:

Action,Username,FirstName,LastName,OU,Group
CREATE,jsmith,John,Smith,"OU=Users,DC=yourdomain,DC=com",IT-Staff
DISABLE,bjones,Bob,Jones,"OU=Users,DC=yourdomain,DC=com",IT-Staff
RESET,mwilliams,Mary,Williams,"OU=Users,DC=yourdomain,DC=com",HR-Staff

Three actions supported:

  • CREATE — creates a new AD user, sets temp password, forces password change at login

  • DISABLE — disables a leaver's account immediately

  • RESET — resets password and forces change at next login

HOW TO RUN IT

Open PowerShell as administrator and run:

PowerShell

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:\Scripts\ADUserManagement.ps1"

Check C:\Logs\ADUserManagement.log for a full audit trail of every action taken.

SETTING UP TASK SCHEDULER

If HR sends you a CSV every Monday morning, automate the whole thing:

  1. Press Windows key → type Task Scheduler → open it

  2. Click "Create Basic Task" → name it AD User Management

  3. Trigger: Weekly → Monday → 9:00am

  4. Action: Start a program

  5. Program: powershell.exe

  6. Arguments:

-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:\Scripts\ADUserManagement.ps1"

  1. Click Next → Finish

Now every Monday at 9am it processes whatever is in the CSV automatically and emails you a summary.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Manual AD management is where mistakes happen — wrong OU, forgotten group memberships, leavers still active weeks later. This script creates a full audit trail, enforces consistency, and turns a 2 hour task into 2 minutes. Drop the CSV, run the script, check your email. Done.

THIS WEEK'S ACTION

Test this in a lab environment first — create one test user, disable one test user, reset one password. Confirm the log and email work correctly. Then roll it out to production next Monday.

Reply to this email if you hit any issues — I read every reply.

Automate & Operate — automateandoperate.com

Keep Reading

© 2026 Automate & Operate.
beehiivPowered by beehiiv