Backing Up MMC Settings

One of the things I hate about switching computers is losing all my customized MMC settings especially the Saved Queries configured in Active Directory Users & Computers (ADUCs).  A few days ago I switched cubes at my customer site and proceeded to reconfigure my new system.  When I opened ADUCs for the first time and noticed the dozen saved queries I had created were missing I decided to find out where this info is stored.  I remotely opened the local user profile on my old computer and discovered some files with no extension named for each MMC in the following location:

 C:\Users\<users name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\MMC

I copied the files to the same location on my new computer and all my settings were restored.  As a rule I only run ADUCs with my restricted account to view and query Active Directory.  When I need to make changes I run ADUCs with an elevated account.  I copied the files above to my elevated account profile as well.

Now before the comments start coming in telling me I can create/save a custom MMC to store my settings let me say I have tried a custom MMC.  I prefer to work in separate windows, at separate security levels if needed, and switch between windows using ALT+TAB.

More information on creating Saved Queries in ADUCs can be found below.

Active Directory LDAP Searches
https://blogs.msdn.com/b/muaddib/archive/2011/10/24/active-directory-ldap-searches.aspx

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 10, 2015
  Excellent... Thank you