Default full name format in Active Directory

Question

When I create a new account in Active Directory, I enter the new user's first name and last name, and it auto-fills the full name in the form "First Last". Can I set AD to use "Last, First" instead? The domain controller is currently Server 2003.

Answer 1

You'll need to edit the createDialog attribute of the displaySpecifier named CN=user-Display to alter the default format in ADUC.

1. Launch adsiedit.msc
2. Right-click the root and choose "Connect to..."
3. On the "Select well known Naming Context" choose "Configuration"
4. Expand "Configuration", on the left pane and drill down:
   • CN=Configuration,DC=example,DC=com
   • CN=DisplaySpecifiers
   • CN=409 (Note this is for EN-US, you need to select your domain's locale)
   • CN=user-Display
5. Open the properties of this specifier.
6. Change the createDialog attribute to %<sn>, %<givenName>

This is documented, in more detail, in MS support Article ID: 250455

How to change display names of Active Directory users.

Edit: To answer, possibly, your next question, you can change the existing displayName attributes of users with the following Powershell.

The LDAP filter will select users with a populated displayName, but will exclude users if displayName contains a comma.

Get-ADUser -LDAPFilter "(&(objectCategory=person)(!displayName=*,*)(displayName=*))" |
    ForEach-Object {  
        Set-ADUser $_ -DisplayName "$($_.Surname), $($_.givenName)"
    }