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Joel Coel
Asked: 2012-01-28 07:23:25 +0800 CST

Default full name format in Active Directory

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When I create a new account in Active Directory, I enter the new user's first name and last name, and it auto-fills the full name in the form "First Last". Can I set AD to use "Last, First" instead? The domain controller is currently Server 2003.

active-directory

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You'll need to edit the createDialog attribute of the displaySpecifier named CN=user-Display to alter the default format in ADUC.

    1. Launch adsiedit.msc
    2. Right-click the root and choose "Connect to..."
    3. On the "Select well known Naming Context" choose "Configuration"
    4. Expand "Configuration", on the left pane and drill down:
      • CN=Configuration,DC=example,DC=com
      • CN=DisplaySpecifiers
      • CN=409 (Note this is for EN-US, you need to select your domain's locale)
      • CN=user-Display
    5. Open the properties of this specifier.
    6. Change the createDialog attribute to %<sn>, %<givenName>

    This is documented, in more detail, in MS support Article ID: 250455

    How to change display names of Active Directory users.

    Edit: To answer, possibly, your next question, you can change the existing displayName attributes of users with the following Powershell.

    The LDAP filter will select users with a populated displayName, but will exclude users if displayName contains a comma. 

    Get-ADUser -LDAPFilter "(&(objectCategory=person)(!displayName=*,*)(displayName=*))" |
    ForEach-Object {  
        Set-ADUser $_ -DisplayName "$($_.Surname), $($_.givenName)"
    }
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