Restore a deleted Active Directory object with PowerShell

Run Windows PowerShell as Administrator.

Start by loading the Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell:

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

List all deleted users (for some reason computer objects also are included when you use objectclass -eq “user):

get-adobject -filter ‘objectclass -eq “user” -AND IsDeleted -eq $True’ -IncludeDeletedObjects -properties IsDeleted,LastKnownParent | Format-List Name,IsDeleted,LastKnownParent,DistinguishedName

List all deleted groups:

get-adobject -filter ‘objectclass -eq “group” -AND IsDeleted -eq $True’ -IncludeDeletedObjects -properties IsDeleted,LastKnownParent | Format-List Name,IsDeleted,LastKnownParent,DistinguishedName

List all deleted computers:

get-adobject -filter ‘objectclass -eq “group” -AND IsDeleted -eq $True’ -IncludeDeletedObjects -properties IsDeleted,LastKnownParent | Format-List Name,IsDeleted,LastKnownParent,DistinguishedName

List all deleted objects:

get-adobject -filter ‘IsDeleted -eq $True’ -IncludeDeletedObjects -properties IsDeleted,LastKnownParent | Format-List Name,IsDeleted,LastKnownParent,DistinguishedName

If you want the output in a text file:
1. Create a script file named list_deleted_users.ps1 and save it to C:\Script\.
2. Use the follwong code in the script:


Import-Module ActiveDirectory

get-adobject -filter ‘objectclass -eq “user” -AND IsDeleted -eq $True’ -IncludeDeletedObjects -properties IsDeleted,LastKnownParent | Format-List Name,IsDeleted,LastKnownParent,DistinguishedName
3. Save the script file.

4. In PowerShell navigate to C:\Script and run the following command:

.\list_deleted_users.ps1 > output.txt

5. You will now have the output from the script in C:\Script\output.txt.
To restore an object named Daniel Svensson:

get-adobject -filter ‘name -like “Daniel Svensson*”‘ -IncludeDeletedObjects | Restore-ADObject

To test the restore you can use –whatif.

get-adobject -filter ‘name -like “Daniel Svensson*”‘ -IncludeDeletedObjects | Restore-ADObject –whatif

- Srinivas.