Change local user password

Marc

Looking for some syntax for my console application that will allow me to change the password of a local user. I have tired the UserPrincipal class, and DirectoryEntry class, nothing seems to be working. Any ideas?

5 Replies

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Vulpes12y ago
It might be an idea to try and get a list of all users so you can make sure that you're using a valid user name.

Here's a nice article on Active Directory which includes some code to do that:

http://www.codemag.com/Article/1312041

I've put the code from this article into a console app below. I've used the generic way of getting the LDAP connection string in case you're not sure what yours is:

using System;
using System.DirectoryServices;

class Program
{
static void Main()
{
GetAllUsers();
Console.ReadKey();
}

private void GetAllUsers()
{
SearchResultCollection results;
DirectorySearcher ds = null;
DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry(GetCurrentDomainPath());

ds = new DirectorySearcher(de);
ds.Filter = "(&(objectCategory=User)(objectClass=person))";

results = ds.FindAll();

foreach (SearchResult sr in results)
{
Console.WriteLine(sr.Properties["name"][0].ToString());
}
}

private static string GetCurrentDomainPath()
{
DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://RootDSE");
object obj = de.Properties["defaultNamingContext"][0];
return "LDAP://" + de.Properties["defaultNamingContext"][0].ToString();
}
}

I'm not able to test this code as I'm not connected to AD but it does compile OK.
Marc12y ago
similar, yes.
Vulpes12y ago
I'd guess that the exception is coming when you call the users.Find method.

Is this the same sort of problem you've had with your previous attempts?
Marc12y ago
I am getting error "an unknown directory object was requested"
Vulpes12y ago
See if you have better luck with this code:

DirectoryEntry localDirectory = new DirectoryEntry("WinNT://" + Environment.MachineName + ", computer");
DirectoryEntries users = localDirectory.Children;
DirectoryEntry user = users.Find("userName", "user");
if (user != null)
{
user.Invoke("SetPassword", new object[]{"newPassword"});
user.CommitChanges();
}