About Active Directory User Interfaces

Both administrators and users must be able to view Active Directory™ objects in the user interface.

Administrators will manage Active Directory using different Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-ins—specifically Active Directory Users and Computers, Active Directory Sites and Services, Active Directory Domains and Trusts, and Active Directory Schema Manager.

The end user, however, will see the directory through the Microsoft® Windows® shell. Users can browse for objects stored in the directory from either the directory item in My Network Places on the desktop or through the Find dialogs available in the Start menu.

Active Directory supports a user interface (UI) that adapts to meet the needs of administrators and end users. Active Directory enables you to extend the user interface that represents existing object classes as well as new classes added to the schema. You can control or extend the following UI elements for each class defined in the schema:

• Property pages
• Context menus
• Class display name
• Attribute display names
• Object creation wizard
• Class icons
• Containers viewed as leaf nodes

In addition, the Windows 2000 operating system provides COM objects that implement common dialog boxes for handling directory objects:

• Directory Object Picker (for specific types)
• Domain Browser
• Container Browser
• Query Forms

Note that your application can use these common dialog boxes to browse for, select, or query for directory objects instead of having to implement your own dialog boxes to perform these common actions.

For Active Directory administration snap-ins, context menus and property pages can also be extended using MMC extension snap-ins. You can also implement the other MMC extensions as well: taskpads, namespace items, control bars, and toolbars. For more information, see Extending Active Directory Administrative Snap-ins using MMC Extension Snap-ins.