Changing the Display Names of Active Directory Users

By default, when a new user is created in Active Directory, the Full Name and Display Name attribute is generated using the FirstName LastName format. You can change this behavior by modifying some attributes using ADSIEdit.

Using ADSIEdit

1. Start Microsoft Management Console (MMC), and then add the ADSI Edit snap-in.
2. Right-click the top node, and then click Connect to.
3. Change the Naming Context to “Configuration Container,” and then click OK to bind and authenticate.
4. Expand the Configuration Container node, and then expand the Configuration node.
5. Expand the cn=DisplaySpecifiers node, and then double-click CN=409. (409 is the Locale ID for U.S. English)
6. In the right-hand pane, open the properties for CN=user-Display.
7. Scroll to the createDialog optional property.
8. Set the attribute to %<sn>.%<givenname>. Make sure that you click Set.
9. Note The only tokens that can be formatted in the dislayName are %<sn>, %<givenName>, and %<initials>
10. Click OK to close the dialog box.