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Disable Windows Active Directory Security Groups

By Johan van Soest.

Published : 2020-05-21.

Last updated : 2020-05-21.

Found an old but valuable Active Directory tip on John Dougherty's website.
All Active Directory administrators know that security has to be applied to groups and users should be added to security groups instead of getting the security settings on their own accounts (AGDLP). This way user management, hire, fire and changing functions, can be made more easily. But what if you need to manage groups? Is that group you want to delete used somewhere? Unless very accurately documented, a deletion of a security group can be tricky.
So why not disable the security group and wait until something fails? Where is the disable option for groups in Active Directory? There isn't, so here the tip comes in handy.

You cannot disable a Security Group in the same way a user account is disabled.
However, you can change a Security Group to a Distribution Group, which disables all access provided by the group, but does not modify the group's SID.
This allows you to test the results of disabling the permissions provided by a Security Group prior to deleting the group.
by John Dougherty
OutsideSys.com

By changing the security group to a distribution group, all rights of the group members that still exist on file servers or within applications are removed. If all applications are still working, the now distribution group can be safely removed. When a problem occurs, change the distribution group back to a security group, and then resolve the issue at your leisure.

Active Directory: disabling a security group

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