Active Directory Property Pages and Menus

 

Using the Native Active Directory Property Pages

 

For many Active Directory objects, such as contacts, printers, shares, and foreign security principals, Hyena will always display and use the native (shell) property pages when managing the Properties of these types of objects.  This high degree of integration provides for better control when using Hyena in a delegated environment, in addition to the familiarity of the same dialogs as used by MMC snapins.

 

For user and group objects, however, Hyena can either use the standard shell property pages for object modifications, or its own internal property pages (which were the only option available prior to Hyena v5.2).  By default, Hyena will use the standard shell property pages when managing groups, yet use a customized set of property pages when managing user objects.  This default behavior can be changed by making the appropriate changes under Tools->Settings->Active Directory, or selected during use by keyboard shortcuts (see below).

 

Tradeoffs and Considerations

 

The standard shell property pages do not support creation of new objects.  You can, however, when creating a new Active Directory object, select both the "Run Active Directory Creation Wizard" and the "Display Object Properties Dialog after Wizard Completes" options in order to provide for one-step object creation.

 

The standard shell property pages only provide functionality supported by Microsoft.  The home directory templates feature, for example, is not supported when using the standard shell property pages to create users.

 

Using the standard shell property pages does provide 100% compatibility with all of the options provided when using MMC snapins.  For example, the Published Certificates tab is not available when using Hyena's internal user property pages.

 

Keyboard and Menu Property Pages Shortcuts

 

In addition to the default behavior for setting which property pages to use for user and group objects under Tools->Settings->Active Directory, Hyena supports a simple keyboard shortcut to force the use of a particular type of property page:

 

To force the display of the standard shell property page, hold the SHIFT key down while double-clicking on the object.

To force the display of the internal (Hyena) property page, hold the ALT key down while double-clicking on the object.

 

For all user accounts, the Account Functions -> Shell Properties menu option will always display the standard shell property pages for user objects.

 

Native Active Directory Object Menus

 

For most Active Directory objects, Hyena can provide access to some of the native (shell) context menus and their functions.  When available, a menu option titled Shell Functions will be added to the context menu for selected objects.  The Shell Functions menu is added to the Account Functions menu on user objects.  As an example, the standard Active Directory Exchange Tasks option is available for user objects in Hyena : Account Functions -> Shell Functions -> Exchange Tasks -> etc.

 

There is a slight performance penalty for displaying the Shell Functions.  If the Shell Functions are not needed or desired, turning off their display may increase performance when displaying the context menu for any Active Directory object.  To turn on/off shell menus, go to Tools->Settings->Active Directory and enable/disable the Add shell functions menu to directory object context menus option.

 

Property Page and Menu Extensions

 

Generally, property page extensions are used to add additional functionality to the Properties dialog for a directory object, such as adding a fingerprint identification page for user identification. In additional to 3rd party extensions, Microsoft also will add the Group Policy page (tab) to many directory objects as well.  Hyena will attempt to determine if a particular directory object has MMC property page extensions, and add these to the standard shell property pages. Any Microsoft or 3rd party extension page that is added to an OU, user, or domain object should also be visible when viewing the same object using Hyena's Properties or Shell Properties functions.
 

Context Menu Extensions
 

The same mechanism that is used to display the property page extensions is also used to add context menu extensions. As an example, The Microsoft Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) adds RSOP options to many AD object context menus. For more information on the Microsoft GPMC, click here.

 

If you know of a context menu extension that is not available in Hyena, contact the vendor of the MMC extension to get a support contact and then pass this information on to support@systemtools.com