How To Add Custom Attributes to the DSFind Pick List

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This article was previously published under Q296646

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SUMMARY

In the Active Directory Users and Computers Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in, you can search for objects based on a filter. There is a list of attributes for user objects that can be selected from a pick list. This article describes how to add an attribute to this pick list.

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MORE INFORMATION

To add attributes to the pick list you must modify the user-display object in the appropriate display specifiers. To do this, follow these steps:

Use ADSIEdit to select the Configuration namespace.
Expand the displaySpecifier container.
Expand the appropriate displaySpecifier container. For example, "409" is English.
View the Properties for the user-Display object.
Modify the attributeDisplayNames attribute by adding a value in the format:
Your_new_Attribute,friendly_name
For example, "Country" looks like this:
co,Country

To verify that your new attribute is available to select, follow these steps:

Start the Users and Computers snap-in.
Select a container.
From the Action menu, choose Find.
On the Advanced tab, click Field and select User.

You will see a list of attributes on the User class, including the attribute that you just added.

If you have multiple domains, you may want to add the new attributes to the personal-information property set. By default the User class supports the personal-information property set, which by default has the read right set for authorized users. This will ensure that this information can be read by other domain accounts. For additional information, see the following Microsoft Platform SDK Documentation topic:

Control Access Rights
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms675747(VS.85).aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms675747(VS.85).aspx)

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REFERENCES

For more information about extending the Active Directory schema, see the following Platform SDK Documentation topic:

Extending the Schema
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759633.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759633.aspx)

For more information about the personal-information property set, see the following Platform SDK Documentation topics:

Control Access Rights
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms675747.aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms675747.aspx)

Setting Permissions on a Group of Properties
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms677954(VS.85).aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms677954(VS.85).aspx)

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