Set-StudentEmail

PowerShell script to bulk-assign email addresses to Active Directory student users based on their first name and surname.

How It Works

The script scans all user accounts in a specified Organisational Unit (OU) and sets each user's email address to:

[firstname][surname]@[domain]

For example, a student named Jane Smith would be assigned janesmith@niddrieautisticschool.vic.edu.au.

• Emails are forced to lowercase and any leading/trailing spaces in names are stripped.
• Users missing a GivenName or Surname in AD are skipped with a warning.

Requirements

• Windows PowerShell 5.1+ or PowerShell 7+
• Active Directory PowerShell module (RSAT: Active Directory Domain Services)
• Sufficient AD permissions to modify user attributes in the target OU
• Run from a domain-joined machine or via Enter-PSSession to a DC

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
-OU	String	OU=Student,OU=Users,OU=5362-NiddrieAutistic,DC=curric,DC=niddrieautistic,DC=wan	Distinguished name of the OU to search
-Domain	String	niddrieautisticschool.vic.edu.au	Email domain to append
-Force	Switch	$false	Overwrite existing email addresses
-WhatIf	Switch	$false	Preview changes without applying them

Usage Examples

Preview changes (recommended first step)

Dry-run that shows what would happen without touching AD:

.\Set-StudentEmail.ps1 -WhatIf

Run with defaults

Uses the default OU and domain baked into the script:

.\Set-StudentEmail.ps1

Custom OU

Target a different OU while keeping the default domain:

.\Set-StudentEmail.ps1 -OU "OU=Year7,OU=Students,DC=school,DC=local"

Custom domain

Keep the default OU but use a different email domain:

.\Set-StudentEmail.ps1 -Domain "anotherschool.vic.edu.au"

Custom OU and domain together

.\Set-StudentEmail.ps1 -OU "OU=Year7,DC=school,DC=local" -Domain "otherschool.edu.au"

Overwrite existing emails

By default the script skips users who already have an email set. Use -Force to overwrite:

.\Set-StudentEmail.ps1 -Force

Combine Force with WhatIf for a safe preview

See what a forced run would change before committing:

.\Set-StudentEmail.ps1 -Force -WhatIf

Verbose output

PowerShell's built-in -Verbose flag works too:

.\Set-StudentEmail.ps1 -Verbose

Output

The script prints colour-coded status lines as it processes each user:

Prefix	Colour	Meaning
SET:	Green	Email was successfully applied
OK:	Grey	User already has the correct email (skipped)
SKIP:	Yellow	User skipped (missing name or has a different email without -Force)
FAIL:	Red	An error occurred updating the user

A summary is printed at the end:

--- Summary ---
Updated: 12
Skipped: 3
Errors:  0

Troubleshooting

Issue	Fix
Get-ADUser : Unable to find a default server	Run from a domain-joined machine, or specify -Server manually in the script
Access is denied	Run as an account with write permissions to user objects in the target OU
Module 'ActiveDirectory' not found	Install RSAT: Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name Rsat.ActiveDirectory.DS-LDS.Tools~~~~0.0.1.0
Users are skipped unexpectedly	Check that GivenName and Surname are populated in AD for those accounts