How do I get the AD Display Name of the currently logged in user

Question

Consider the following properties as set up in Active Directory for a user:

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In my winforms application I would like to show the Display Name of the user who is currently logged on and using the application. How would I go about retrieving this information?

score 27 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 14 '11 at 12:00

27

Since you're on .NET 4, you can use the System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement (S.DS.AM) namespace. Read all about it here:

Basically, you can define a domain context and easily find users and/or groups in AD:

// set up domain context
PrincipalContext ctx = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain);

// find currently logged in user
UserPrincipal user = UserPrincipal.Current;

string displayName = user.DisplayName;

The new S.DS.AM makes it really easy to play around with users and groups in AD.

answered Jul 14 '11 at 12:00

marc_s

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Why did you grab ctx and not use it? (i'm having issues with AD and stumbled across this answer) – Kevin Fischer Apr 14 '15 at 17:57
I would like to know why you dont use ctx aswell – Jannik Sep 14 '15 at 14:55
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@Jannik: this is code from a bigger example where I do use the `ctx` - it's not really necessary here for this single statement – marc_s Sep 14 '15 at 16:33
Thaniks man, its been a long time since you wrote this, appreaciate your comment – Jannik Sep 15 '15 at 05:27
`The LDAP server is unavailable.` – AgentFire Jul 17 '19 at 09:01

score 11 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 04 '16 at 15:10

11

After hours of searching for the simplest way I finally came across this

System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.UserPrincipal.Current.DisplayName;

I wanted to get it out there for more people like me.

edited Feb 04 '16 at 15:10

Bruno Bieri

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answered Sep 25 '13 at 19:20

Lee

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This was exactly what I needed, for a powershell script. Excellent. – xan Oct 30 '13 at 16:35
Worked great. The only thing I cant get from this is the users manager? – Kieran Quinn Mar 20 '15 at 10:29
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When I do this I get "cast object of type 'System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.GroupPrincipal' to type 'System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.UserPrincipal" error... – jroyce Oct 01 '18 at 21:55

How do I get the AD Display Name of the currently logged in user

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