The Search command-line tool is included when you install Windows Server 2003 Support Tools from the product CD or from the Microsoft Download Center (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=100114). For more information about how to install Windows Support Tools from the product CD, see Install Windows Support Tools (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=62270).

This command-line tool performs searches against a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server. It can be used by an Administrator or any user who wants to get information from Active Directory.

All search criteria are taken from the command line. However, certain properties of the search, such as the page size, can only be changed by modifying variable values in the script.

To search Active Directory, open Active Directory Users and Computers.

For a conceptual overview of LDAP, see the Understanding LDAP white paper on the MSDN web site.

For more information about Security Descriptors, see the Security Descriptor Definition Language topic on the MSDN Web site.

For more information about Active Directory, see Deploying Active Directory.

The following are the system requirements for this script:

• A connection to an LDAP server.
  

• Search.vbs
  

Concepts