Active Directory holds different types of objects in its database. The most common way to locate an object in Active Directory is to use ADAC or ADUC and browse through the containers. As the number of objects increases, so does the difficulty of locating objects in Active Directory. In this section, we are going to look into more efficient ways of locating objects in an Active Directory environment.

ADAC has enhanced query and filter capabilities. Since it's used via a GUI, it helps us retrieve results faster compared to PowerShell.

In its management list, there is a filter box in the top section (once you click on the domain name in the navigation pane). It doesn't change the view as you navigate through the containers. It helps you filter the data displayed in the management list quickly. It doesn't search for objects at multiple levels (child containers):

ADAC has a feature called Global Search, which can be used to search for objects in the entire directory. This allows a typical text-based search or advanced LDAP-based queries:

Let's now look at how to perform LDAP-based searches. The method also allows us to define the search scope:

This Global Search function can also be accessed from the overview page.

In ADUC, object search functions are very limited compared to ADAC and PowerShell. It does have the Find... option, which allows us to locate objects in the directory. It can be accessed by right-clicking on any container:

It allows us to do a text-based search as well as an advanced search based on attributes and their values. It also allows to define the search scope: