Join Multiple Computers to Domain using PowerShell Script

Joining multiple computers to a Windows Domain can be a time-consuming and repetitive task, especially if you need to do it for a large number of computers. In such scenarios, it is more efficient to automate the process using a script. 

PowerShell is a powerful scripting language that provides a comprehensive set of cmdlets to automate and manage Windows-based systems. With its built-in support for domain management, it is well suited for tasks such as joining computers to a domain.

In this article, we'll show you how to join multiple computers at once to a Windows Domain using a PowerShell script.

Before you begin, you'll need to prepare a list of the computers you want to join to the domain, and you'll need to have the credentials of a user who has the necessary permissions to join computers to the domain.

Here's an example of a PowerShell script that can be used to join multiple computers to a domain at once:

$Computers = Get-Content -Path "C:\Computers.txt"
$Domain = "YourDomainName"
$User = "YourDomainUsername"
$Password = ConvertTo-SecureString "YourPassword" -AsPlainText -Force
$Credential = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($User, $Password)

Foreach ($Computer in $Computers) {
  Write-Host "Joining computer $Computer to domain $Domain"
  Try {
    Add-Computer -DomainName $Domain -Credential $Credential -ErrorAction Stop
    Write-Host "Computer $Computer joined to domain successfully"
  }
  Catch {
    Write-Host "Failed to join computer $Computer to domain $Domain"
  }
}

Open Notepad or any other text editor to create a PowerShell script. Save your script followed by .ps1 (e.g. MyScript.ps1).

This script requires the following:

1. A text file named "Computers.txt" containing the names of all the computers you want to join to the domain. Each computer name should be on a separate line.

2. Replace "YourDomainName" with the name of your domain.

3. Replace "YourDomainUsername" and "YourPassword" with the credentials of a user who has the necessary permissions to join computers to the domain.

Once you have completed these steps, you can run the script by opening a PowerShell window with administrative privileges and typing the name of the script. The script will join each computer in the "Computers.txt" file to the domain, and it will provide output indicating the success or failure of each join operation.

 

Conclusion

Using a PowerShell script to join multiple computers to a domain at once can significantly streamline the process and save you time and effort. With a little bit of scripting knowledge, you can easily create your own script to automate this task and achieve faster, more efficient results.