Have you ever been moving around quickly while managing or cleaning up your Active Directory (AD) domain and delete something you shouldn’t have? We all know mistakes can happen, even with all of those confirmation dialogues. Even though Windows Server 2008 R2 offers its own Active Directory Recycle Bin feature, there is another option for those of you who have yet to upgrade your domain or if you’re looking for an alternative way to manage this feature. Overall Solutions Inc. offers a free tool, ADRecycleBin.
This easy-to-use utility is a 500kb executable, which allows you to add it to your management USB key or CD, making it handy regardless of your location. When you delete objects from AD, they won’t really get deleted, and this is because the “isDeleted” attribute is set, and these objects are moved to a special CN called Deleted Objects. These objects are referred to as “tombstones,” and this tool allows you to restore a set of them at one time.
ADRecycleBin is an easy, simple, and free way to manage your mistakenly deleted AD objects, and it is definitely worth consideration as an addition to your IT toolbox.