Vista’s MoveUser.exe replacement

Hi Rob here again. I recently had a customer that needed the functionality of MoveUser.exe from the Windows 2000 Resource Kit available in Windows Vista. The customer had quite a few Windows Vista machines that were not joined to the domain but were now migrating to Active Directory. For their own business reasons they were previously unable to join the machines to the domain, instead all the users logged on with local user accounts. Since they had this new fancy Active Directory they created user accounts in AD for the users and joined the machines to the domain. They then found that they needed a way to attach the users’ existing local profile to their Active Directory user accounts so that the users would have their normal setup and desktop when they logged in-a seamless experience. Now if you have been around forever like most of us here in support in Windows 2000 and up we used a utility named MoveUser.exe to accomplish this.

Well, in Windows Vista moveuser.exe is no longer supported. However, now we expose this functionality with a new WMI provider called Win32_UserProfile, which is discussed in KB930955. This is awesome because we expose things about user profiles in WMI now… and we can also move the profile to another user as well as delete user profiles. However, once I started looking at MSDN to understand what methods were available I quickly found that MSDN has not been updated as of yet for this new class. So we did some digging into the source code to find out how this works and what is supported.

I wrote a sample script that illustrates how you can leverage this provider to move an existing user profile to another user’s profile. I know that I could have made the script smaller by not listing out all the different properties available in the provider, but the different things exposed are just way too many and if you are planning on using this provider they are just way too cool.

Usage

Please keep in mind that this is a sample script-you will need to alter it and test it in your environment and for your needs. To use:

1. Copy the below script into Notepad then save as moveuser.vbs

2. You will need to modify the following variables within the script.

• strComputer: The computer name that this script needs to run against
• strSourceAcct: The user account that has the source profile on the system
• strSourceAcctDomain: The domain of the source user account that the profile belongs to. If the source account that you want to move the profile from is a local computer user you put in the computers name for the domain. If this is another domain then you type in the domain name.
• strTargetAcct: The user account that the source profile should be moved to.
• strTargetDomain: The domain of the target user account that the profile should be moved to. If the target account that you want to move the profile to is a local computer user you put in the computers name. If this is another domain then you type in the domain name.
• strDomainDN: The Target Account Domains Distinguished Name. This is done for the LDAP query to be built to find the target accounts SID. for example dc=contoso,dc=com

3. Run the script by typing cscript moveuser.vbs

Sample Script

' This script is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. ' For more information please visit '     https://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.mspx to find terms of use. ' Option Explicit DIM strComputer, strSourceAcct, strSourceAcctDomain, strTargetAcct DIM strTargetAcctDomain, strTargetAcctSID DIM objProfile, objCommand, objRecordSet, objConnection, objWMIService, objSID DIM dtStart, colProfiles, oSID, oUsr DIM Revision, IssueAuthorities(11), strSDDL, subAuthoritiesDIM strDomainDN CONST ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE=2 ' This script has hard coded variables in it that must be filled out. ' strComputer = The computer name that this script needs to run against. ' With WMI the "." means this computer. ' ' strSourceAcct = user account that has the source profile on the system. ' ' strSourceAcctDomain = The domain of the source user account that the profile belongs to. ' If the source account that you want to move the profile from ' is a local computer user you put in the computers name for the domain. ' If this is another domain then you type in the domain name. ' ' strTargetAcct = The user account that the source profile should be moved to. ' ' strTargetDomain = The domain of the target user account that the profile should be moved to ' If the target account that you want to move the profile to. ' is a local computer user you put in the computers name. ' If this is another domain then you type in the domain name. ' ' strDomainDN = The Target Account Domains Distinguished Name. ' This is done for the LDAP query to be built to find the target accounts SID ' strComputer ="." strSourceAcct="User1" strSourceAcctDomain="Contoso-Vista" strTargetAcct="User1" strTargetAcctDomain="CONTOSO" strDomainDN="dc=contoso,dc=com"strTargetAcctSID="" dtStart = TimeValue(Now()) Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") objConnection.Open "Provider=ADsDSOObject;" Set objCommand = CreateObject("ADODB.Command") objCommand.ActiveConnection = objConnection ' We need the proper Active Directory domain name where the user exists in a DN format. You can ' modify the strDomainDN variable to you Active Directory domain name is in DN format. objCommand.CommandText = _ "SELECT AdsPath, cn FROM 'LDAP:// "+strDomainDN+"' WHERE objectCategory = 'user'" & _ "And sAMAccountName= '"+strTargetAcct+"'" objcommand.Properties("searchscope") = ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute If objRecordset.RecordCount = 0 Then WScript.Echo "sAMAccountName: " & strTargetAcct & " does not exist." ElseIf objRecordset.RecordCount > 1 Then WScript.Echo "There is more than one account with the same sAMAccountName" Else WScript.Echo "Found account: "+strTargetAcctDomain+""+strTargetAcct + " in the domain." objRecordSet.MoveFirst Do Until objRecordSet.EOF Set Ousr = GetObject(objRecordSet.Fields("AdsPath").Value) strTargetAcctSID = SDDL_SID(oUsr.Get("objectSID")) WScript.echo "SID for "+ strTargetAcctDomain+""+strTargetAcct + _ " is: "+strTargetAcctSID WScript.Echo VBNewLine WScript.Echo VBNewLine         objRecordSet.MoveNext Loop objConnection.Close Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\" & strComputer &"rootcimv2") Set colProfiles = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_UserProfile") For Each objProfile in colProfiles Set objSID = objWMIService.Get("Win32_SID.SID='" & objProfile.SID &"'") Wscript.Echo"======================================================"& VBNewLine _ &"Sid:" & objProfile.Sid & VBNewLine _ &"User Name:" & objSID.AccountName & VBNewLine _ &"User Domain:" & objSID.ReferencedDomainName & VBNewLine _ &"LocalPath:" & objProfile.LocalPath & VBNewLine _ &"Loaded:" & objProfile.Loaded & VBNewLine _ &"RefCount:" & objProfile.RefCount & VBNewLine _ &"RoamingConfigured:" & objProfile.RoamingConfigured & VBNewLine _ &"RoamingPath:" & objProfile.RoamingPath & VBNewLine _ &"RoamingPreference:" & objProfile.RoamingPreference & VBNewLine _ &"Status:" & objProfile.Status & VBNewLine _ &"LastUseTime:" & objProfile.LastUseTime & VBNewLine _ &"LastDownloadTime:" & objProfile.LastDownloadTime & VBNewLine _ &"LastUploadTime:" & objProfile.LastUploadTime & VBNewLine  ' Testing to verify that the current profile handle is for the Source Account that we want to ' Move to the domain user. if UCase(objsid.referencedDomainName+""+objsid.AccountName)= _ UCase(strSourceAcctDomain+""+strSourceAcct) Then ' Making sure that the source profile is currently not in use. If it is we will bail out. If objProfile.RefCount < 1 Then WScript.echo "Change Profile for: "+ strSourceAcctDomain+""+ _ strSourceAcct+" to: "+ strTargetAcctDomain+""+strTargetAcct ' ChangeOwner method requires to String SID of Target Account and a Flag setting         ' Flag 1 = Change ownership of the source profile to target account ' even if the target account already has a profile on the system.         ' Flag 2 = Delete the target account Profile and change ownership ' of the source user account profile to the target account.         ' To use the ChangeOwner method, both the source and ' target account profiles (If it exists) must not be loaded.             ObjProfile.ChangeOwner strTargetAcctSID,1 Else Wscript.echo "Could not move the users profile, because " + _            strSourceAcctDomain+""+strSourceAcct+" profile is currently loaded" End If End If Next End If Sub Init_IssueAuthorities( ) 'DIM IssueAuthorities(11) IssueAuthorities(0) = "-0-0" IssueAuthorities(1) = "-1-0" IssueAuthorities(2) = "-2-0" IssueAuthorities(3) = "-3-0" IssueAuthorities(4) = "-4" IssueAuthorities(5) = "-5" IssueAuthorities(6) = "-?" IssueAuthorities(7) = "-?" IssueAuthorities(8) = "-?" IssueAuthorities(9) = "-?" end sub function SDDL_SID ( oSID ) DIM Revision, SubAuthorities, strSDDL, IssueIndex, index, i, k, p2, subtotal DIM j, dblSubAuth ' ' First byte is the revision value ' Revision = "1-5"' ' Second byte is the number of sub authorities in the ' SID ' SubAuthorities = CInt(ascb(midb(oSID,2,1))) strSDDL = "S-" & Revision IssueIndex = CInt(ascb(midb(oSID,8,1))) ' ' BYtes 2 - 8 are the issuing authority structure ' Currently these values are in the form: ' { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, X} ' ' We use this fact to retrieve byte number 8 as the index ' then look up the authorities for an array of values ' strSDDL = strSDDL & IssueAuthorities(IssueIndex) ' ' The sub authorities start at byte number 9. The are 4 bytes long and ' the number of them is stored in the Sub Authorities variable. ' index = 9 i = index for k = 1 to SubAuthorities ' ' Very simple formula, the sub authorities are stored in the ' following order: ' Byte Index Starting Bit ' Byte 0 - Index 0 ' Byte 1 - Index + 1 7 ' Byte 2 - Index + 2 15 ' Byte 3 - Index + 3 23 ' Bytes0 - 4 make a DWORD value in whole. We need to shift the bits ' bits in each byte and sum them all together by multiplying by powers of 2 ' So the sub authority would be built by the following formula: ' ' SUbAuthority = byte0*2^0 + Byte1*2^8 + byte2*2^16 + byte3*2^24 ' ' this be done using a simple short loop, initializing the power of two ' variable ( p2 ) to 0 before the start an incrementing by 8 on each byte ' and summing them all together. ' p2 = 0 subtotal = 0 for j = 1 to 4 dblSubAuth = CDbl(ascb(midb(osid,i,1))) * (2^p2) subTotal = subTotal + dblSubAuth p2 = p2 + 8 i = i + 1 next ' ' Convert the value to a string, add it to the SDDL Sid and continue ' strSDDL = strSDDL & "-" & cstr(subTotal) next SDDL_SID = strSDDL end function

Please keep in mind if you have not installed Service Pack 1 for Vista, you will need to download the MSI installer to get the new WMI Profile provider since it was released after Vista shipped.

Well, I hope that you find this functionality helpful. Happy scripting.

- Rob Greene

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 11, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 11, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 11, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 12, 2008
  That fixed it.  Migrated the profile perfectly, just like the old moveuser.exe did with XP. Thank you very much.  I really needed a script like this right now - and from what I found on the 'net, lot's of other people are looking for it, as well. ==Ron.

• Anonymous
  September 12, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 12, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 12, 2008
  Hey, that's great Ron! I tried to pummel Rob into doing that as well but he had other things going on and took the easy way out. :) Thanks very much for providing that sample for people here, I'm sure they will find it useful.

• Anonymous
  September 17, 2008
  I ran across another problem...  When I try to run the script to change an account from a Domain to a local user (instead of the other way around...), I get the following error: (116, 13) SWbemObjectEx: The parameter is incorrect. What I have for the variables is similar to before, but in reverse: strComputer ="." strSourceAcct="wilsonf" strSourceAcctDomain="UNIVERSITY" strTargetAcct="fred" strTargetAcctDomain="Test-MigVista20" strDomainDN="dc=university,dc=edu" It's almost as if the "ObjProfile.ChangeOwner" doesn't work in this direction. Any ideas?

• Anonymous
  September 17, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 17, 2008
  Where Rob spells out the description for each of the variables above, it "sounds" like it should work.  Not sure if it worked with the old Moveuser.exe or not.  Perhaps I'll test that out...

• Anonymous
  September 17, 2008
  Just tested the Moveuser.exe under XP and was able to successfully revert a user from the domain back to being a local user.

• Anonymous
  September 17, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 18, 2008
  Thanks for the info.  I understand now why it doesn't work in the reverse direction.  Now I need to decide if I want to go through the work of adding that functionality for something that really will rarely (if ever) be used.

• Anonymous
  September 18, 2008
  Hey Ron, I totally understand that.  However, if you do choose to do this we would be glad to have the code added to the comments sectoin  ;)

• Anonymous
  September 19, 2008
  I might tackle this later...  I've been editing the script to make it closer to the old MoveUser.exe because we are going to begin a 'mass migration' next week, converting ~600 remaining users from Novell to AD.  I wanted my instructions for the team to be as close to identical for both XP and Vista as I could get them.  I've made so many changes now that simply posting a code-snip wouldn't work very well.  I'm telling our team to get the file from: http://tacklebox.cns.ohiou.edu/Moveuser/ If you want to check out the changes in the file, let me know what you think... (and if you see any problems that I've missed.) Converting profiles back really isn't an issue right now - but in a University environment we get piles of requests that make all of us say "Why would they want to do that?" - But we aren't generally able to say 'no' unless it's trully imposible (and sometimes not even then...) So while I would like to have the 'ability' to move them back, I don't have the time to write and test that before we begin. And I doubt I'll have the need right away. So,... here we go........

• Anonymous
  September 24, 2008
  Hey Ron, So I took a look at you site listed above.  Top notch, I really like how you took the concept of the script and totally made it into something that you as well as other customers can use.   I have to give you the extra kodos of adding all the documentation around how to use the script on the website.   Thank you for taking interest in our blogging efforts and giving back to the community with the additions to the script.

• Anonymous
  October 01, 2008
  Auch das Active Directory Team betreibt ein Blog , dass ich interessant zu lesen finde. Gestolpert darüber

• Anonymous
  November 19, 2008
  We’ve been at this for over a year (since August 2007), with more than 100 posts (127 to be exact), so

• Anonymous
  March 25, 2009
  I know it has been a while, and this thread is likely dead - but I recently tested my current version of the script on a Windows 7 beta installation and after a couple of minor tweaks to the error checking bits, it now works with Windows 7 just fine. (Though I still haven't gone back to try to fit in the 'move back to a local account' option...) Oh,... and our mass migration of the Novell users went beautifully.

• Anonymous
  April 30, 2009
  For what it's worth, I ran into some trouble with the VBScript replacement and ended up using the following PowerShell script instead.  As Rob Greene suggested, I pulled the SIDs from Win32_UserAccount.   [code] $original_user = get-wmiobject -class "Win32_UserAccount" -namespace "rootcimv2" -filter "Name='user1' AND LocalAccount=True" $new_user = get-wmiobject -class "Win32_UserAccount" -namespace "rootcimv2" -filter "Name='user1' AND Domain='CONTOSO'" $profile = get-wmiobject -class "Win32_UserProfile" -namespace "rootcimv2" -filter "SID='$($original_user.SID)'" $profile.ChangeOwner($new_user.SID, [uint32]0) [/code] Which could be even shorter: [code] $original_user = get-wmiobject "Win32_UserAccount WHERE Name='user1' AND LocalAccount=True" $new_user = get-wmiobject "Win32_UserAccount WHERE Name='user1' AND Domain='CONTOSO'" $profile = get-wmiobject "Win32_UserProfile WHERE SID='$($original_user.SID)'" $profile.ChangeOwner($new_user.SID, 0) [/code]

• Anonymous
  April 30, 2009
  Hey perennialmind, Thats great coding. I am sorry to hear that you had issues with the VBScript. Rob Greene

• Anonymous
  June 29, 2009
  thank's a lot, i will try your script Rob, but if it's doesn't works with my park, this powerShell Scritp works ? (I just change in row 2 "Domain='Tralala'" [code] $original_user = get-wmiobject "Win32_UserAccount WHERE Name='user1' AND Domain='Tralala'" $new_user = get-wmiobject "Win32_UserAccount WHERE Name='user1' AND Domain='CONTOSO'" $profile = get-wmiobject "Win32_UserProfile WHERE SID='$($original_user.SID)'" $profile.ChangeOwner($new_user.SID, 0) [/code] And i have a another question for both script (vbs and PowerShell), when do I run the script ? when I'm the admin of the first domain (source) or the final domain (target), after created a user profil in the new domain ? by default, your script doesn't delete the source account I guess ? Rob, Do you marry me ? I have no further question. the shrimp's stell

• Anonymous
  July 13, 2009
  Hey Shrimp's Stell, I have to be honest here with you, I have not really taken the time to learn anything at this point about Powershell scripting in general. However, I think your script is going to have a problem unless both the source and target accounts have logged onto the machine at least once.  Since you are calling the WMI Win32_UserAccount class. Rob Greene

• Anonymous
  April 17, 2010
  The comment has been removed