Windows Tools

LDP UI
Overview | Notes | UI | Examples | Related Tools Open Command Prompt

To start LDP

The LDP dialog box consists of two panes. The scope pane on the left side lists the base object and any child objects. The details pane lists the results of the LDAP operations.

Connection Menu

The Connection menu Options:

Option Description
Connect Opens a dialog box that opens a session with a specified LDAP server. A connection must be established with an LDAP server before any other LDAP commands can be run. Enter the appropriate port number for the service you are connecting to. By default LDAP uses TCP for a connection-oriented session. To use UDP for a connectionless session, select the Connectionless checkbox. By default a successful connection results in the display of the RootDSE information in the detail pane.
Bind Opens a dialog box that authenticates to a specified LDAP server. Enter a username and password of an account that has permissions to the LDAP server. If you enter an invalid user, then you will be connected with anonymous credentials. As a shortcut, use the Bind option without using the Connect option to connect, and authenticate with server last connected to.
Advance Opens the a dialog box that sets options for the authentication methods. See Bind under the Options menu.
Disconnect Terminates an open session with a specified LDAP server. Closing the LDP application automatically disconnects any open sessions.
New Keeps the currently connected session, but clears the details pane. The keyboard shortcut for this action is CTRL+N. By default the details pane is accumulative.
Open Opens text files and places the information in the details pane.
Save Saves changes to a previously saved file.
Save as Saves the contents of the details pane to a text file. Use the Open command to view the contents of this file in the details pane later.
Print Prints the details pane.

NOTE

Browse Menu

The Browse menu Options:

Add

Opens a dialog box that adds objects to Active Directory. The full distinguished name of the object must be entered, as well as all of the mandatory attributes for the class of object being added.

Option Description
DN Enter the full distinguished name of the new object.
Attribute Enter the required or optional attribute.
Values Enter the value(s) associated with the attribute. Separate multiple values for a single attribute with a semicolon. No spaces are required.
Enter Click this button to add the entered attribute and value(s) to the Entry List section of the dialog box, and clear the Attribute and Value input boxes. Continue entering attributes and values until all required and desired optional attributes are on the Entry List.
Insert File Opens a dialog box that allows a text file with the appropriate attributes and values to be used.
Entry List Displays entered attributes and values.
Edit Opens a dialog box that allows changes to the selected entry from the Entry List.
Remove Deletes the selected entry from the Entry List.
Extended Select this checkbox if the object being added is part of an extended control.
Synchronous By default this checkbox is selected, requiring LDP to wait for a response from the destination server before continuing. Clear this checkbox to allow LDP to continue before a response is received. Clear this checkbox when slow WAN connections are causing LDP commands to timeout.
Run Click this button to add the current attributes and values in the Entry List to Active Directory. If LDP encounters any errors, then the object will not be added and the error will display in the details pane.
Delete Opens a dialog box that allows an object from Active Directory to be deleted. Attributes can be deleted only if they are defined as optional and contain no values. Use the Edit command to delete an attributes values.

DN

Option Description
Dn Enter the full distinguished name of the new object.
Extended Select this checkbox if the object being deleted is part of an extended control.
Synchronous By default this checkbox is selected, requiring LDP to wait for a response from the destination server before continuing. Clear this checkbox to allow LDP to continue before a response is received. Clear this checkbox when slow WAN connections are causing LDP commands to timeout.
Recursive (client) Deletes all objects in a container, but does not delete the container.

Modify

Opens a dialog box that allows changes to the attributes of an object stored in Active Directory.

Option Description
Dn Enter the full distinguished name of the new object.
Attribute Enter the required or optional attribute.
Values Enter the value(s) associated with the attribute. Separate multiple values for a single attribute with a semicolon. No spaces are required.
Insert Files Opens a dialog box that allows a text file with the appropriate attributes and values to be used.
Enter Click this button to add the entered attribute and value(s) to the Entry List section of the dialog box, and to clear the Attribute and Value input boxes. Continue entering attributes and values until all required and desired optional attributes are on the Entry List.
Operation Section Choose between Add, Delete, and Replace. Choose Add to add a new value to an existing attribute. Choose Delete to permanently remove an attribute from the listed object. Attributes containing data cannot be deleted. Also, attempting to delete required attributes results in an error. Choose Replace to replace an existing value with another. Choose Replace to change listed values for an existing attribute.
Entry List Section Displays existing attributes and values for an object.
Edit Opens a dialog box that allows changes to the selected entry from the Entry List.
Synchronous By default this checkbox is selected requiring LDP to wait for a response from the destination server before continuing. Clear this checkbox to allow LDP to continue before a response is received. Clear this checkbox when slow WAN connections are causing LDP commands to timeout.
Extended Select this checkbox if the object being modified is part of an extended control.
Run Click this button to send the edited values in the Entry List to Active Directory.

Modify RDN

Opens a dialog box that allows changes to an object's relative distinguished name. This option is designed to modify leaf objects only. If you rename the container portion of the distinguished name, then the object will be moved to the container that is named.

Option Description
Old DN Enter the current distinguished name of the object.
New DN Enter the new distinguished name for the object.
Delete Old Specifies that the old distinguished name should be removed from the LDAP directory. This checkbox is selected by default.
Synchronous By default this checkbox is selected, requiring LDP to wait for a response from the destination server before continuing. Clear this checkbox to allow LDP to continue before a response is received. Clear this checkbox when slow WAN connections are causing LDP commands to timeout.
Extended rename Select this checkbox if the object being renamed is part of an extended control.
Run Click this button to send the change to Active Directory.

Search

Opens a dialog box that creates a customized search filter, and performs the search on the directory information tree. The search base must be specified as a distinguished name, and the filter must be a valid LDAP filter. Items returned from a search are separated by >> characters.

Option Description
Base DN Enter a distinguished name to specify where the search should start from.
Filter Enter the search criteria separated by LDAP search filters. Enter attributes and values to find an object or set of objects. Note: LDAP search filters are defined in RFC 2254, and in the Knoweldge Base Article Q255602 "Browsing and Querying Using the LDP Utility" at Microsoft Product Support Services (http://www.microsoft.com/).
Scope Section Specifies how many levels the search should encompass.
Base Searches the base object only.
One Level Searches objects immediately subordinate to the base object, but does not search the base object.
Subtree Searches the entire subtree, from the base object down to all child objects.
Options Button Opens the Search Options dialog box. Allows the application of filters that allows some entries and excludes others from the search, and allows controls that affect how the search is processed. See the Options menu for more details.
Run Click this button to send the search request to Active Directory.

Compare

Opens a dialog box that allows the user to compare the value of an object's attribute with a specified value. The result returned is either true or false.

Option Description
DN Enter the full distinguished name of the object whose value(s) will be compared.
Attribute Enter attribute to be compared.
Values Enter the value(s) that will be compared with the existing value in Active Directory. Separate multiple values for a single attribute with a semicolon. No spaces are required.
Synchronous By default this checkbox is selected, requiring LDP to wait for a response from the destination server before continuing. Clear the checkbox to allow LDP to continue before a response is received. Clear this checkbox when slow WAN connections are causing LDP commands to timeout.
Run Starts the comparison.

Extended Op

Opens a dialog box that allows the user to submit an extended operation to an LDAP Directory by specifying an LDAP Object identifier (OID) and an applicable value.

Option Description
Oid Enter the Object ID number.
Data Enter the value of the OID attribute.
Controls See Controls under the Option menu.
Send Submits the extended operation to Active Directory.

GetLastError

Calls the LDAP Getlasterror function.

Security

Opens a dialog box that allows the user to submit an extended operation to an LDAP Directory by specifying an LDAP Object identifier (OID) and an applicable value.

Option Description
Security Descriptor Opens a dialog box that allows the viewing of access permissions on an object.
User Rights Not implemented yet.

Replication

Opens a dialog box that allows the user to submit an extended operation to an LDAP Directory by specifying an LDAP Object identifier (OID) and an applicable value.

Option Description
View Metadata Opens a dialog box that allows the viewing of replication metadata of an object. This command is useful in identifying whether the objects are up to date and replicated between domain controllers.

Process Pending

Opens a dialog box that shows the list of requests that are not finished processing.

View Menu

The View menu Options:

Option Description
Status Bar Shows or hides the Status Bar located along the bottom of the LDAP window.
Tree Opens a dialog box that specifies the base object in the scope pane. A default base object can be entered in the General Options dialog box in the Auto Base DN Query input box. By default this input box is blank and no object is listed in the scope pane.
Enterprise Configuration Opens the Live Enterprise Tree dialog box that shows a graphic display of all domains and domain controllers in the enterprise. The dialog box indicates whether the domain controllers are online or offline by marking offline domain controllers with a red X.
Auto Refresh (min): Enter the number of minutes that LDP should wait before refreshing the display.
Refresh Manually refreshes the display.

Options Menu

The Options menu Options:

Bind Options

Option Description
Function Type Specifies a category of authentication that LDP will use when choosing authentication methods.
Generic Specifies that a standard authentication protocol will be used.
Simple Specifies that no authentication protocol will be used and the password will be sent in clear text.
Extended Not available.
Method Selects the type of authentication that LDP will use when passing credentials.
Synchronous Use this checkbox to specify that the authenticating server must respond immediately to requests. This option only works with Simple authentication.
Use auth. identit Allows the use of alternate authentication credentials. All authentication methods except simple require synchronous calls.

Search Options

Option Description
Time Limit Specifies the number of milliseconds that the search can take on the server. By default the maximum is 120 seconds.
Size Limit Specifies the maximum number of bytes that the search can return. Entering a null value does not place a maximum size on the data returned.
Timeout (s) Specifies the number of seconds that LDP will wait for the LDAP server to respond to a search request.
Timeout (ms) Specifies the number of milliseconds that LDP will wait for the LDAP server to respond to a search request.
Page Size Limits each page of returned data to the specified number of bytes.
Attributes Specifies which attributes will be returned in the search. Separate multiple attributes with a semicolon. Use the asterisk (*) wildcard character to indicate all attributes.
Search Call Type Specifies a call type to be used in the search. If the search will take some time, then selecting async allows you to perform other tasks while waiting for the search to complete.
Attributes Only Select this checkbox to return only attributes of objects. The distinguished name will not be returned.
Chase Referrals Performs a search for objects found in external LDAP driectories. By default, objects' external LDAP directories' trusts will only return a referral instead of the actual object.
Display Results Displays a detailed list of objects returned by the search. By default only a success or failure, and the number of objects found, is displayed.
Sort Keys Selecting this button will open the Sort Keys Option dialog box. See Sort Keys in the Options menu.
Controls Selecting this button will open the Controls Option dialog box.

Pending Options

Opens a dialog box that places filters on the list of processes that have not yet completed.

Option Description
All search results Specifies that all search results will be displayed.
Blocking Clear this checkbox to set a time limit.
Time Limit (sec): Specifies a time limit in seconds.
Time Limit (millisec): Specifies a time limit milliseconds

General Options

Option Description
Value Parsing Section  
Binary Displays the LDAP information in its native numerical format.
String Converts the LDAP information from its native format to ASCII characters,so that it is more readable when displayed. This is the default setting. Values that are too long to be converted are still displayed in binary form.
LDAP Version Section Specifies which version of LDAP the server is using. The default is version 3.
DN Processing Section Converts the distinguished names, displayed into component parts, by extending the data types that LDP returns when performing a command. This option is useful for LDP developers.

Buffer Size Section

Option Description
Page Specifies the number of lines returned that will be displayed by LDP per command.
Line Specifies the number of characters returned that will be displayed by LDP per command.
Auto default NC query Specifies that LDP should query the default naming context when a connection to the LDAP server is made. The default naming context is the RootDSE. This setting is used when the distinguished name value in the View|Tree dialog box is left blank.

Virtual List View (VLV) Section

Option Description
Auto VLV browse when continer size is greater than: Selecting this checkbox displays a pop-up window of a virtual list view, whenever the object count is greater than the value displayed in the input box. The default value is 100.

Connection Options

Opens a dialog box that allows the value of any option to be changed.

Option Name Enter the name of the option whose value will be reset.
Value Enter the new value for the specified option.
Set Sends the information to the LDAP Directory.

TLS Options

Starts or stops a secure session with the LDAP server using Transport Level Security (TLS).

Controls Option

Use LDAP controls to extend the functionality of LDAP.
The Object Identifier must be specified when implementing a control. To obtain a list of Object Identifiers, view the supportedControls property in the RootDSE of a domain controller. Individual controls are described in the Understanding LDAP whitepaper published by Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/).

NOTE

Sort Keys Option

Sort Keys is a type of control that formats the display of search results.

For more information find sortKeyRequestControl in the Understanding LDAP whitepaper published by Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/).

Utilities Menu

The Utilities menu Options:

Large Integer Converter For developers to convert large integers into High and Low parts.

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