Powershell Import-Module doesn't work when in script

Question

I need to import the ActiveDirectory module for one of my scripts. When I do this from the command line, running

Import-Module -Name ActiveDirectory
./script.ps1

Everything works just dandy.

But putting the import statement at the top of the script and running the script only, without importing from the command line results in the module not being imported at all, such that this class inside the module is not recognized:
Unable to find type [Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.ADUser].

This problem doesn't come up when running the script from the VS code debugger. Why could this be happening?

Answer 1

I had to go digging in C:\Windows\WinSxS to grab the needed DLLs.

DLLs:

Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.dll

Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.resources.dll

Folders:

amd64_microsoft.activedirectory.management_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.14393.4880_en-us_74aaa3f6f858fbf7 amd64_microsoft.activedirectory.management_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.14393.4880_none_8e0f8779d0e8e934

Instructions:

Once you have the dlls, stage them in C:\windows\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\modules\activedirectory

Run something like

cd C:\windows\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\modules\activedirectory

import-module .\Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.dll

import-module .\Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.resources.dll

#reimport ActiveDirectory; even if you've already done it

import-module ActiveDirectory

Run your script. Should work

Note:

In my testing, staging the dlls in ActiveDirectory and just importing the ActiveDirectory module didn't work for me. I had to import each; One after another. If you are doing this within a script, throw a Start-Sleep in between