Create Local User with Custom User Folder in Powershell

Question

I am trying to create a new Win 2008 server local user and assign the user a different profile path. I don't want Windows to generate all the files under C:\Users\newUser, instead, I'd like to have it do that in D:\customDir\newUser. Does anyone know of a way to do this?

So far this is what I have:

$users= @("U1","U2","U3")
$computer = [ADSI]"WinNT://$env:COMPUTERNAME,computer"
$group = [ADSI]"WinNT://$env:COMPUTERNAME/MyCustomGroup,group"
$users | foreach {
    $userName = $_
    $userPath = "D:\customDir\$userName"
    echo "Creating $userName..."
    $user = $computer.Create("User",$userName)
    $user.put("description","User $userName Description")
    #$user.put("profilePath",$userPath) #This does not work, throws an error
    #$user.put("homeDirDrive","D:") #This appears to be ignored when uncommented
    $user.setpassword($userName)
    $user.setInfo()

    $group.add($user.Path)

    #run cmd from user account to create profile files/folders
    $spw = ConvertTo-SecureString $userName -AsPlainText -Force
    $cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $userName,$spw
    Start-Process cmd /c -WindowStyle Hidden -Credential $cred -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

}

The script successfully creates the users and adds them to the custom group, but all the files/folders end up in C:\Users\U*

Answer 1

The only thing I can think of for you would be to change it at the registry level. Note that I'm not recommending you mess with the registry, but this does do what you want -

The default directory for a new profile is determined by the ProfilesDirectory in HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList, and by default is %SystemDrive%\Users, changing it to $userpath should do what you want -

$regpath = "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList"
$regname = "ProfilesDirectory"

set-itemproperty -path $regpath -name $regname -value $userpath

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

To the OP,

Thanks for this piece, I was trying to figure out how to make this work for me:

run cmd from user account to create profile files/folders

$spw = ConvertTo-SecureString $userName -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $userName,$spw
Start-Process cmd /c -WindowStyle Hidden -Credential $cred -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

but I had to modify the last line to get it to work:

Start-Process cmd /c -Credential $cred -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -LoadUserProfile

Answer 3

This works fine.

$loginName="ChrisMcCormack"
$newPass="123456ABCDEFG" # obviously generate a proper password...
$desc="average user"
$localHost=[ADSI]"WinNT://localhost"
$newUser=$localHost.Create("user",$loginName);
$newUser.setPassword($newPass);
$newUser.put("HomeDirectory","c:\users\$loginName");
$newUser.put("description",$desc);          
$newUser.setInfo();

You can also use:

$spw = ConvertTo-SecureString $newPass -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $loginName,$spw
Start-Process cmd /c -WindowStyle Hidden -Credential $cred -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

to create the users directories without logging the user on.

Chris

Answer 4

Here is the way I use according to the underlaying COM component object model and the IADsUser interface.

$obj = [ADSI]"WinNT://$env:COMPUTERNAME"
$user1=$obj.create("user", "utilisateur1")
$user1.PasswordExpired=0
$user1.Invoke("setpassword","test.2012")
$user1.Invoke("put", "HomeDirectory", "c:\silogix")
$user1.Invoke("put", "Profile", "c:\docs")
$user1.Invoke("put", "LoginScript", "test.cmd")
$user1.CommitChanges()

Here is the result.