How to get all groups that a user is a member of?

Single line, no modules necessary, uses current logged user:

(New-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher("(&(objectCategory=User)(samAccountName=$($env:username)))")).FindOne().GetDirectoryEntry().memberOf 

Kudos to this vbs/powershell article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff730963.aspx

A more concise alternative to the one posted by Canoas, to get group membership for the currently-logged-on user.

I came across this method in this blog post: http://www.travisrunyard.com/2013/03/26/auto-create-outlook-mapi-user-profiles/

([ADSISEARCHER]"samaccountname=$($env:USERNAME)").Findone().Properties.memberof 

An even better version which uses a regex to strip the LDAP guff and leaves the group names only:

([ADSISEARCHER]"samaccountname=$($env:USERNAME)").Findone().Properties.memberof -replace '^CN=([^,]+).+$','$1' 

More details about using the [ADSISEARCHER] type accelerator can be found on the scripting guy blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2010/08/24/use-the-powershell-adsisearcher-type-accelerator-to-search-active-directory.aspx

Old school way from CMD:

net user mst999 /domain 

(GET-ADUSER –Identity USERNAME –Properties MemberOf | Select-Object MemberOf).MemberOf 

This should provide you the details for current user. Powershell not needed.

whoami /groups

If you cannot get Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership to work for you could try logging in as that user then use.

$id = [Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent() $groups = $id.Groups | foreach-object {$_.Translate([Security.Principal.NTAccount])} $groups | select * 

While there are many excellent answers here, there is one which I was personally looking for that was missing. Once I figured it out - I thought I should post it in case I want to find it later, or it actually manages to help someone else at some point:

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership username | Format-Table -auto 

A second approach for presenting this is to specify the individual columns you are interested in eg:

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership username | select name, GroupScope, GroupCategory 

This gives all the AD groups the username belongs to - but also presents all of the default properties of each group formatted nicely as a table.

The key benefit this gives you is you can see at a glance which are distribution lists, & which are Security groups. You can further see at a glance which are Universal, which are DomainLocal & which are Global.
Why would you care about this last bit?

• Universal group is a security or distribution group that contains users, groups, and computers from any domain in its forest as members. You can give universal security groups rights and permissions on resources in any domain in the forest.
• Global group is a group that can be used in its own domain, in member servers and in workstations of the domain, and in trusting domains. In all those locations, you can give a global group rights and permissions and the global group can become a member of local groups. However, a global group can contain user accounts that are only from its own domain.
• Domain local group is a security or distribution group that can contain universal groups, global groups, other domain local groups from its own domain, and accounts from any domain in the forest. You can give domain local security groups rights and permissions on resources that reside only in the same domain where the domain local group is located.

I wrote a PowerShell function called Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive. It accepts the DSN of a user, computer, group, or service account. It retrieves an initial list of groups from the account's memberOf attribute, then recursively checks those group's memberships. Abbreviated code is below. Full source code with comments can be found here.

function Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive( ) { Param( [string] $dsn, [array]$groups = @() ) $obj = Get-ADObject $dsn -Properties memberOf foreach( $groupDsn in $obj.memberOf ) { $tmpGrp = Get-ADObject $groupDsn -Properties memberOf if( ($groups | where { $_.DistinguishedName -eq $groupDsn }).Count -eq 0 ) { $groups += $tmpGrp $groups = Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive $groupDsn $groups } } return $groups } # Simple Example of how to use the function $username = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter a username" $groups = Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive (Get-ADUser $username).DistinguishedName $groups | Sort-Object -Property name | Format-Table 

Get-Member is not for getting user's group membership. If you want to get a list of groups a user belongs to on the local system, you can do so by:

$query = "ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_Account.Name='DemoUser1',Domain='DomainName'} WHERE ResultRole=GroupComponent ResultClass=Win32_Account" Get-WMIObject -Query $query | Select Name 

In the above query, replace DemoUser1 with the username you want and the DomainName with either your local computer name or domain name.

Get group membership for a user:

$strUserName = "Primoz" $strUser = get-qaduser -SamAccountName $strUserName $strUser.memberof 

See Get Group Membership for a User

But also see Quest's Free PowerShell Commands for Active Directory.

[Edit: Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership command is included in Powershell since v2 with Windows 2008 R2. See kstrauss' answer below.]

Get-Member is a cmdlet for listing the members of a .NET object. This has nothing to do with user/group membership. You can get the current user's group membership like so:

PS> [System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent().Groups | Format-Table -auto BinaryLength AccountDomainSid Value ------------ ---------------- ----- 28 S-1-5-21-... S-1-5-21-2229937839-1383249143-3977914998-513 12 S-1-1-0 28 S-1-5-21-... S-1-5-21-2229937839-1383249143-3977914998-1010 28 S-1-5-21-... S-1-5-21-2229937839-1383249143-3977914998-1003 16 S-1-5-32-545 ... 

If you need access to arbitrary users' group info then @tiagoinu suggestion of using the Quest AD cmdlets is a better way to go.

No need for long scripts when it is a simple one liner..

QUEST Command

(Get-QADUser -Identity john -IncludedProperties MemberOf | Select-Object MemberOf).MemberOf 

MS AD Command

(GET-ADUSER –Identity john –Properties MemberOf | Select-Object MemberOf).MemberOf 

I find the MS AD cmd is faster but some people like the Quest ones better..

Steve

Use:

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership username | select name | export-CSV username.csv 

This pipes output of the command into a CSV file.

For LOCAL users and groups (ie not in Active Directory), and if you don't want to, or aren't allowed to, or can't install RSAT and/or Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-AD-PowerShell and/or import-module activedirectory then here's a pure, pre-installed powershell (5.1+) way to do it.

(Note: Get-LocalGroup* used below are only available Powershell v5.1 and above. "...v5.1 was released along with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update on August 2, 2016, and in Windows Server 2016. ...[F]or Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2 [it] was released on January 19, 2017." (wikipedia))

$username = "user002" Get-LocalGroup | ForEach-Object { # the usernames are returned in the string form "computername\username" if (Get-LocalGroupMember -Group $_ | Where-Object name -like "*\$username") { $_.name } } 

Example output:

Administrators Users 

First, import the ActiveDirectory module:

Import-Module ActiveDirectory 

Then issue this command:

Get-ADGroupMember -Identity $group | foreach-object { Write-Host $_.SamAccountName } 

This will display the members of the specified group.

It is just one line:

(get-aduser joe.bloggs -properties *).memberof 

end of :)

(Get-ADUser $env:username -Properties MemberOf).MemberOf | % {$_.split(",")[0].replace("CN=","")} Domain Users Domain Computers Workstation Admins Company Users Company Developers AutomatedProcessingTeam 

The below works well:

get-aduser $username -Properties memberof | select -expand memberof 

If you have a list of users:

$list = 'administrator','testuser1','testuser2' $list | ` %{ $user = $_; get-aduser $user -Properties memberof | ` select -expand memberof | ` %{new-object PSObject -property @{User=$user;Group=$_;}} ` } 

Studying all comments presented gave me a starting point (thanks for such) but left me with several unresolved issues. As result here is my answer. The code snippet provided does a little more than what is asked for but it provides helpful debugging info.

[array] $script:groupsdns = @() function Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive() { Param( [string] $dn, [int] $level = 0, [array] $groups = @() ) #if(($groupsdns | where { $_.DistinguishedName -eq $dn }).Count -ne 0 ) { return $groups } # dependency on next statement #$groupsdns += (Get-ADObject $dn -Properties MemberOf) # Get-ADObject cannot find an object with identity if ($script:groupsdns.Contains($dn)) { return $groups } $script:groupsdns += $dn $mo = $Null $mo = Get-ADObject $dn -Properties MemberOf # Get-ADObject cannot find an object with identity $group = ($dn + " (" + $level.ToString()) if ($mo -eq $Null) { $group += "!" } $group += ")" $groups += $group foreach( $groupdn in $mo.MemberOf ) { $groups = Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive -dn $groupdn -level ($level+1) -groups $groups } if ($level -le 0) { $primarygroupdn = (Get-ADUser -Identity $dn -Properties PrimaryGroup).PrimaryGroup $groups = Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive -dn $primarygroupdn -level ($level+1) -groups $groups } return $groups } $adusergroups = Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive -dn $aduser.DistinguishedName $adusergroups | ft -AutoSize | ` Out-File -Width 512 Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembershipRecursive.txt #-Append #-Wrap # | Sort-Object -Property Name 

There is no need for PowerShell, you could use the command line tool gpresult as follows:

gpresult /USER domain\username /R 

You may omit the /USER portion to display the information for the currently logged on user:

gpresult /R 

Example output:

Microsoft (R) Windows (R) Operating System Group Policy Result tool v2.0 © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Created on ‎10/‎01/‎2024 at 10:14:48 RSOP data for DOMAIN\username on SYSTEM : Logging Mode ------------------------------------------------------- OS Configuration: Member Workstation OS Version: 10.0.19045 Site Name: N/A Roaming Profile: N/A Local Profile: C:\Users\username Connected over a slow link?: No USER SETTINGS -------------- CN=full name,OU=organisation unit,DC=some Last time Group Policy was applied: 10/01/2024 at 09:00:00 Group Policy was applied from: server Group Policy slow link threshold: 500 kbps Domain Name: MEDEL Domain Type: Windows 2008 or later Applied Group Policy Objects ----------------------------- usrPolWindowsAccounts (list of applied group policies) The following GPOs were not applied because they were filtered out ------------------------------------------------------------------- usrPolGermanGermany Filtering: Denied (Security) (list of denied group policies) The user is a part of the following security groups --------------------------------------------------- Domain Users Everyone Remote Desktop Users BUILTIN\Users NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE CONSOLE LOGON NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users This Organization LOCAL secUsersEnglish (list of security groups) 

In contrast to the net user command (as suggested in user4511672's answer), the group names are not truncated.

Get-QADUser -SamAccountName LoginID | % {$_.MemberOf } | Get-QADGroup | select name

 Get-ADUser -Filter { memberOf -RecursiveMatch "CN=Administrators,CN=Builtin,DC=Fabrikam,DC=com" } -SearchBase "CN=Administrator,CN=Users,DC=Fabrikam,DC=com" -SearchScope Base ## NOTE: The above command will return the user object (Administrator in this case) if it finds a match recursively in memberOf attribute. 

I couldn't get the following to work for a particular user:

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership username 

It threw an error that I was not willing to troubleshoot.

I did however come up with a different solution using Get-ADUser. I like it a bit better because if you don't know the account name then you can get it based off of a wildcard on the user's actual name. Just fill in PartOfUsersName and away it goes.

#Get the groups that list of users are the member of using a wildcard search [string]$UserNameLike = "*PartOfUsersName*" #Use * for wildcards here [array]$AccountNames = $(Get-ADUser -Filter {Name -like $UserNameLike}).SamAccountName ForEach ($AccountName In $AccountNames) { Write-Host "`nGETTING GROUPS FOR" $AccountName.ToUpper() ":" (Get-ADUser -Identity $AccountName -Properties MemberOf|select MemberOf).MemberOf| Get-ADGroup|select Name|sort name } 

Huge props to schmeckendeugler and 8DH for getting me to this solution. +1 to both of you.

To get it recursive, you can use:

<# .SYNOPSIS Get all the groups that a user is MemberOf. .DESCRIPTION This script retrieves all the groups that a user is MemberOf in a recursive way. .PARAMETER SamAccountName The name of the user you want to check #> Param ( [String]$SamAccountName = 'test', $DomainUsersGroup = 'CN=Domain Users,CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=net' ) Function Get-ADMemberOf { Param ( [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline)] [PSObject[]]$Group, [String]$DomainUsersGroup = 'CN=Domain Users,CN=Users,DC=grouphc,DC=net' ) Process { foreach ($G in $Group) { $G | Get-ADGroup | Select -ExpandProperty Name Get-ADGroup $G -Properties MemberOf| Select-Object Memberof | ForEach-Object { Get-ADMemberOf $_.Memberof } } } } $Groups = Get-ADUser $SamAccountName -Properties MemberOf | Select-Object -ExpandProperty MemberOf $Groups += $DomainUsersGroup $Groups | Get-ADMemberOf | Select -Unique | Sort-Object 

Putting this here for future reference. I'm in the midst of an email migration. I need to know each user account and its respective group membership, and also I need to know each group and its respective members.

I'm using the code block below to output a CSV for each user's group membership.

Get-ADUser -Filter * |` ForEach-Object { ` $FileName = $_.SamAccountName + ".csv" ; ` $FileName ; ` Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $_ | ` Select-Object -Property SamAccountName, name, GroupScope, GroupCategory | ` Sort-Object -Property SamAccountName | ` Export-Csv -Path $FileName -Encoding ASCII ; ` } 

The export process for the groups and their respective members was a little convoluted, but the below works. The output filenames include the type of group. Therefore, the email distribution groups I need are/should be the Universal and Global Distribution groups. I should be able to just delete or move the resulting TXT files I don't need.

Get-ADGroup -Filter * | ` Select-Object -Property Name, DistinguishedName, GroupScope, GroupCategory | ` Sort-Object -Property GroupScope, GroupCategory, Name | ` Export-Csv -Path ADGroupsNew.csv -Encoding ASCII $MyCSV = Import-Csv -Path .\ADGroupsNew.csv -Encoding ASCII $MyCSV | ` ForEach-Object { ` $FN = $_.GroupScope + ", " + $_.GroupCategory + ", " + $_.Name + ".txt" ; ` $FN ; ` Get-ADGroupMember -Identity $_.DistinguishedName | ` Out-File -FilePath $FN -Encoding ASCII ; $FN=""; ` } 

When you do not have privileges to consult other member groups but you do have the privilege to consult group members, you can do the following to build a map of which user has access to which groups.

$groups = get-adgroup -Filter * | sort name | select Name $users = @{} foreach($group in $groups) { $groupUsers = @() $groupUsers = Get-ADGroupMember -Identity $group.Name | Select-Object SamAccountName $groupUsers | % { if(!$users.ContainsKey($_.SamAccountName)){ $users[$_.SamAccountName] = @() } ($users[$_.SamAccountName]) += ($group.Name) } } 

Import-Module ActiveDirectory Get-ADUser -SearchBase "OU=Users,DC=domain,DC=local" -Filter * | foreach-object { write-host "User:" $_.Name -foreground green Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $_.SamAccountName | foreach-object { write-host "Member Of:" $_.name } } 

Change the value of -SearchBase to reflect the OU you need to list the users from :)

This will list all of the users in that OU and show you which groups they are a member of.

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership USERLOGON | select name

This is the simplest way to just get the names:

Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership "YourUserName"

# Returns distinguishedName : CN=users,OU=test,DC=SomeWhere GroupCategory : Security GroupScope : Global name : testGroup objectClass : group objectGUID : 2130ed49-24c4-4a17-88e6-dd4477d15a4c SamAccountName : testGroup SID : S-1-5-21-2114067515-1964795913-1973001494-71628

Add a select statement to trim the response or to get every user in an OU every group they are a user of:

foreach ($user in (get-aduser -SearchScope Subtree -SearchBase $oupath -filter * -Properties samaccountName, MemberOf | select samaccountName)){ Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $user.samaccountName | select name}