User Accounts

It’s a little-known fact that Windows comes with per-user services, background processes that complement the well-known per-machine system services. This article explains what per-user services are, how to create your own, and which configuration options there are.

When you need to simulate a real Active Directory with thousands of users you quickly find that creating realistic test accounts is not trivial. Sure enough, you can whip up a quick PowerShell one-liner that creates any number of accounts, but what if you need real first and last names? Real (existing) addresses? Postal codes matching phone area codes? I could go on. The point is that you need two things: input files with names, addresses etc. And script logic that creates user accounts from that data. This blog post provides both.