Discover Computers without Network Scanning

Computer Discovery

Every computer that joins Active Directory has an associated computer account in AD. When the computer is joined, there are several attributes with this computer object that are updated. The important attributes are:

• Created

• Modified

• Enabled

• Description

• LastLogonDate (Reboot)

• PrimaryGroupID

• PasswordLastSet

• OperatingSystemVersion

• OperatingSystemServicePack

• PasswordLastSet

• LastLogonDate

• ServicePrincipalName

• TrustedForDelegation

• TristedToAuthForDelegation

Get-ADComputer -filter {PrimaryGroupID -eq "515"} -Properties OperatingSystem,OperatingSystemVersion,OperatingSystemServicePack,PasswordLastSet,LastLogonDate,ServicePrincipalName,TrustedForDelegation,TrustedtoAuthForDelegation

Same data for Domain Controllers can be gathered by changing the PrimaryGroupID value to "516" or get all computers by changing to "-filter *"

Get-ADComputer -filter {PrimaryGroupID -eq "516"} -Properties OperatingSystem,OperatingSystemVersion,OperatingSystemServicePack,PasswordLastSet,LastLogonDate,ServicePrincipalName,TrustedForDelegation,TrustedtoAuthForDelegation

This provides useful information on Windows OS versions as well as non-Windows computers on the domain.

You can discover non-Windows devices with these queries:

• OperatingSystem -Like "*Samba*"

• OperatingSystem -Like "*OnTap*"

• OperatingSystem -Like "*Data Domain*"

• OperatingSystem -Like "*EMC*"

• OperatingSystem -Like "*Windows NT*"