Ken St. Cyr - Automating Active Directory Administration with Windows PowerShell 2.0

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Dear Reader,

Thank you for choosing Automating Active Directory Administration with Windows PowerShell 2 .. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching.

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This book is dedicated to my beautiful and virtuous wife, Brenna, who exemplifi es every trait of the Proverbs 31 woman.

Ken St. Cyr

To my family.

Laura E. Hunter

Acknowledgments

There's no way I could have written this book without my tremendous support system. At the head of that system is my best friend and amazing wife, Brenna. She has the patience of a saint and is wise beyond her years. It's through her support and help that I was able to have the time to take on this project and the encouragement to finish. Alongside her are my brilliant and adorable children, Lincoln and Nora. Their helpfulness was manifested in their cuteness and willingness to let me write.

When I first entertained the thought of taking on this book, I looked at the timeline and realized that it was impossible for me to go about this one alone. My first choice for a coauthor was the obvious one; Laura Hunter's name is almost synonymous with Active Directory. Thankfully, when I asked her to coauthor this book with me, she was happy to do it. So, a big thanks goes out to Laura for helping me write this. Along with Laura, we had two contributors working on this book, Chas Jeffries and Nick DiCola. Both Chas and Nick bring an incredible amount of experience and expertise in security and Active Directory, and I am thankful that they were able to help.

It was a great pleasure to work with the wonderful group of professionals at Wiley. In particular, I would like to thank the development editor, Kim Beaudet; the production editor, Dassi Zeidel; editorial manager, Pete Gaughan; copy editor Tiffany Taylor; and the compositors at Laserwords. I would also like to thank my good friend and technical editor, Steve Patrick, who is one of the deepest Active Directory guys on the planet. And I would like to give an extra-special thanks to my acquisitions editor, Agatha Kim, who, as always, was a real treat to work with.

I also need to thank my wonderful friends and coworkers at Microsoft. A big thanks goes out to my fellow Directory Masters and members of the product group who answered my questions and gave me great insight. I would also like to thank my many teachers, mentors, and encouraging friends: Abe Berlas, Aaron Isom, Darryl Schaffer, Alex Bogdanovsky, Heath Aubin, Ben Drake, Joe Fox, Jim Hale, and the members of the Microsoft OCTO team.

And finally, I would like to give a special thanks to my wonderful friends and family at Grace Baptist Church in Bowie, MD, who offered their prayers and encouragement for me throughout this process. The Godly direction given by my pastors and mentors has been invaluable: Steve Lane, Dr. George Harton, Mark Tanious, and Larry Olson. There's no group of people more loving and caring than those at Grace.