How to Notify Active Directory Users When Their Password is About to Expire?

To notify Active Directory users when their password is about to expire, you can use the built-in Windows feature called “Fine-Grained Password Policies” in combination with a PowerShell script. Here are the steps to set this up:

1. Create a Fine-Grained Password Policy:
   • Open the Active Directory Users and Computers console on a domain controller.
   • Right-click the domain name and select “Properties”.
   • Click on the “Group Policy” tab, then click “New” to create a new password policy.
   • Give the new policy a name and description, then click “Add” to specify the users to whom the policy should apply.
   • Configure the password policy settings, including the password expiration interval and the number of days before expiration when users should be notified.
2. Create a PowerShell script to send email notifications:
   • Open PowerShell ISE or your favorite PowerShell editor.
   • Copy and paste the following script:perlCopy code
     Import-Module ActiveDirectory $daysBeforeExpiration = 14 $expiredUsers = Search-ADAccount -PasswordExpired -UsersOnly $expiringUsers = Search-ADAccount -AccountExpiring -TimeSpan "14" $subject = "Your password is about to expire" $body = "Your password will expire in $($daysBeforeExpiration) days. Please change your password as soon as possible." foreach ($user in $expiredUsers) { $emailAddress = $user.EmailAddress Send-MailMessage -To $emailAddress -Subject $subject -Body $body -SmtpServer "smtp.example.com" } foreach ($user in $expiringUsers) { $emailAddress = $user.EmailAddress Send-MailMessage -To $emailAddress -Subject $subject -Body $body -SmtpServer "smtp.example.com" } Replace “14” in the TimeSpan parameter with the number of days before password expiration that you want to notify users. Also, replace “smtp.example.com” with the name of your SMTP server.
3. Schedule the script to run regularly:
   • Save the script to a file with a .ps1 extension.
   • Open Task Scheduler on the domain controller or another server where you have administrative access.
   • Create a new task and give it a name and description.
   • In the “Actions” tab, create a new action to start a program.
   • Set the program to “PowerShell.exe” and the arguments to “-File C:\Path\To\Script.ps1”.
   • Configure the schedule for the task to run at a regular interval, such as once a day or once a week.

With these steps, Active Directory users will receive an email notification when their password is about to expire according to the Fine-Grained Password Policy that you have configured.