Click Start, click Administrative Tools, right-click Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell, and then click Run as administrator.

At the Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

Set-ADForestMode [-Identity] <ADForest> [-ForestMode] <ADForestMode>

To set the forest functional level to Windows Server 2008 R2, type Windows2008R2Forest for <ADForestMode>.

For example, to set the forest functional level of contoso.com to Windows Server 2008 R2, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

Set-ADForestMode –Identity contoso.com -ForestMode Windows2008R2Forest

To open Ldp.exe, click Start, click Run, and then type ldp.exe.

To connect and bind to the server that hosts the forest root domain of your AD DS environment, under Connection, click Connect, and then click Bind.

Click View, and then click Tree. In BaseDN, select the configuration directory partition, and then click OK.

In the console tree, double-click the distinguished name (also known as DN) of the configuration directory partition, and then navigate to the CN=Partitions container.

Right-click the CN=Partitions container’s distinguished name, and then click Modify.

In the Modify dialog box, in Edit Entry Attribute, type msDS-Behavior-Version.

In the Modify dialog box, in Values, type 4 (the value of the Windows Server 2008 R2 forest functional level).

In the Modify dialog box, under Operation click Replace, click Enter, and then click Run.

Click Start, click Administrative Tools, right-click Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell, and then click Run as administrator.

Warning
If you do not use the Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell to run the following commands, you will see errors. If you would prefer to run the following commands from Windows PowerShell directly, then first import the Active Directory cmdlet by running the following command import-module activedirectory

At the Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

Enable-ADOptionalFeature -Identity <ADOptionalFeature> -Scope <ADOptionalFeatureScope> -Target <ADEntity>

Note
The distinguished name (also known as DN) of Active Directory Recycle Bin is CN=Recycle Bin Feature,CN=Optional Features,CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<mydomain>,DC=<com>, where <mydomain> and <com> represent the appropriate forest root domain name of your Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) environment.

For example, to enable Active Directory Recycle Bin for contoso.com, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

Enable-ADOptionalFeature –Identity ‘CN=Recycle Bin Feature,CN=Optional Features,CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=contoso,DC=com’ –Scope ForestOrConfigurationSet –Target ‘contoso.com’

To open Ldp.exe, click Start, click Run, and then type ldp.exe.

To connect and bind to the server that hosts the forest root domain of your AD DS environment, under Connection, click Connect, and then click Bind.

Click View, click Tree, in BaseDN, select the configuration directory partition, and then click OK.

In the console tree, double-click the distinguished name of the configuration directory partition, and then navigate to the CN=Partitions container.

Right-click the CN=Partitions container’s distinguished name, and then click Modify.

In the Modify dialog box, make sure that the DN box is empty.

In the Modify dialog box, in Edit Entry Attribute, type enableOptionalFeature.

In the Modify dialog box, in Values, type CN=Partitions,CN=Configuration,DC=mydomain,DC=com:766ddcd8-acd0-445e-f3b9-a7f9b6744f2a. Replace mydomain and com with the appropriate forest root domain name of your AD DS environment.

Note

766ddcd8-acd0-445e-f3b9-a7f9b6744f2a is the Active Directory Recycle Bin globally unique identifier (GUID). To verify the Active Directory Recycle Bin GUID, navigate to the CN=Recycle Bin Feature,CN=Optional Features,CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration, DC=mydomain,DC=com container (replace mydomain and com with the appropriate forest root domain name of your AD DS environment), and in the details pane, locate the value of the msDS-OptionalFeatureGUID attribute.

In the Modify dialog box, under Operation click Add, click Enter, and then click Run.

To verify that Active Directory Recycle Bin is enabled, navigate to the CN=Partitions container. In the details pane, locate the msDS-EnabledFeature attribute, and confirm that its value is set to CN=Recycle Bin Feature,CN=Optional Features,CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration, DC=mydomain,DC=com, where mydomain and com represent the appropriate forest root domain name of your AD DS environment.