I've been trying to create new local user accounts on windows 7 machine. I used the System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry class (as in here) but it doesn't seem to work.
Here's the code in the article:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
DirectoryEntry AD = new DirectoryEntry("WinNT://" +
Environment.MachineName + ",computer");
DirectoryEntry NewUser = AD.Children.Add("TestUser1", "user");
NewUser.Invoke("SetPassword", new object[] {"#12345Abc"});
NewUser.Invoke("Put", new object[] {"Description", "Test User from .NET"});
NewUser.CommitChanges();
DirectoryEntry grp;
grp = AD.Children.Find("Guests", "group");
if (grp != null) {grp.Invoke("Add", new object[] {NewUser.Path.ToString()});}
Console.WriteLine("Account Created Successfully");
Console.ReadLine();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
When executing this line
DirectoryEntry NewUser = AD.Children.Add("TestUser1", "user");
I get a
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
with "{"Unknown error (0x80005000)"}
"
as the exception message, and -2147463168
as the error code.
I assume this is probably because the article targets Windows XP and below machines, and I'm targeting windows 7 and Windows server 2008.
Any help appreciated!
Update:
For some mysterious reason, i'm no longer seeing that System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
, however, when committing the changes here newuser.CommitChanges()
, I get a "UnAuthorizedAccessException
". I tried running the app as administrator, but still not working.
Update 2:
OK, after changing to the UserPrincipal class, i got the follwoing code to work:
public UserPrincipal CreateNewUser(string sUserName, string sPassword)
{
// first check that the user doesn't exist
if (GetUser(sUserName) == null)
{
PrincipalContext oPrincipalContext = GetPrincipalContext();
UserPrincipal oUserPrincipal = new UserPrincipal(oPrincipalContext);
oUserPrincipal.Name = sUserName;
oUserPrincipal.SetPassword(sPassword);
//User Log on Name
//oUserPrincipal.UserPrincipalName = sUserName;
oUserPrincipal.Save();
return oUserPrincipal;
}
// if it already exists, return the old user
return GetUser(sUserName);
}
}
This code runs well when I run it as a console app -of course run as administrator- but when i deployed it as a windows service, with the security account set as "LocalSystem", i get an InvlaidOperationException
saying "The underlying store does not support this property"
Thoughts?
OK, if you check my last update, the following snippet worked:
public UserPrincipal CreateNewUser(string sUserName, string sPassword)
{
// first check that the user doesn't exist
if (GetUser(sUserName) == null)
{
PrincipalContext oPrincipalContext = GetPrincipalContext();
UserPrincipal oUserPrincipal = new UserPrincipal(oPrincipalContext);
oUserPrincipal.Name = sUserName;
oUserPrincipal.SetPassword(sPassword);
//User Log on Name
//oUserPrincipal.UserPrincipalName = sUserName;
oUserPrincipal.Save();
return oUserPrincipal;
}
// if it already exists, return the old user
return GetUser(sUserName);
}
}
That worked as a console app, but failed to execute due to security exceptions when deployed as a windows service. A solution is to trust that assembly (the windows service assembly) so that the .net security will let it run. That's done, now everything is cool!
You need to prefix your username with CN=, like so:
DirectoryEntry NewUser = AD.Children.Add("CN=TestUser1", "user");
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