You can add users, computers, and even other groups to AD groups with the Add-AdGroupMember cmdlet.
Adding Users to a Group
Single User
Add one user to a group:
Add-AdGroupMember -Identity Quality -Members B.Jackson
Multiple Users
Add two users to the “Quality” group:
Add-AdGroupMember -Identity Quality -Members B.Jackson, E.Franklin
Adding Computer Accounts
To add a computer account to a group, append a dollar sign ($) to the end of the computer account name:
Add-AdGroupMember -Identity Quality -Members WKS043$
Adding to Multiple Groups
Add a user to multiple groups at once:
"Managers","Quality" | Add-ADGroupMember -Members `
(Read-Host -Prompt "Enter User Name")
You’ll be prompted to input the username.
Verifying Group Membership
Once you’ve added users to a security group, verify they are listed as members:
Get-ADGroupMember -Identity Quality
Output Example
Adding Groups to Other Groups
You can nest groups by specifying a group name as the member:
Add-ADGroupMember -Identity "Managers" -Members "Quality"
This makes the “Quality” group a member of the “Managers” group.
Bulk Operations
Adding Many Users from CSV
If you want to add a large number of users to a group, specify them in a CSV file and then import that file.
CSV Format: The list of usernames in the CSV file must contain the SamAccountNames in the “users” column:
Import Script:
Import-CSV C:\scripts\users.csv -Header users | ForEach-Object {
Add-AdGroupMember -Identity "Quality" -members $_.users
}
Copying Group Membership
Copy all members from one group to another group:
Get-ADGroupMember "Quality" | Get-ADUser | ForEach-Object {
Add-ADGroupMember -Identity "QualityControl" -Members $_
}