How do I delete user in Active Directory through Powershell? - powershell

Question

I have to delete users from my AD through Powershell. Powershell has to ask me who I want to delete, once I type in the username it should delete the account. Also when Powershell succesfully deleted the account or it should give me a message.
I'm kind of noob at this, but here is my code:
function aduser-remove($userremove){
Remove-ADUser -Identity $delete
if ($delete -eq $userremove){
return $true
}
else {
return $false
}
}
$delete = Read-host "Which user do you want to delete? (Type in username)."
aduser-remove $delete
if ($userremove -eq $true){
Write-Host $delete "deleted succesfully!" -ForegroundColor Green
}
elseif ($userremove -eq $false){
Write-Host "An error occured by deleting" $delete -ForegroundColor Red
}
else {
Write-Host $delete "does not exist." -ForegroundColor DarkGray
}
The result here is that Powershell does ask if I want to delete the account and it works. But Powershell keeps giving me the else message instead of the if message. Deleting the account was succesfull.
I have no idea what to now or if I'm missing something (I bet I am otherwise it would work).
I hope you guys can help me!

Answer 1

As commented, your code uses variables in places where they do not exist.
Also, I would recommend trying to find the user first and if you do, try and remove it inside a try/catch block, as Remove-ADUser creates no output.
Below a rewrite of your code. Please note that I have changed the name of the function to comply with the Verb-Noun naming convention in PowerShell.
function Remove-User ([string]$userremove) {
# test if we can find a user with that SamAccountName
$user = Get-ADUser -Filter "SamAccountName -eq '$userremove'" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($user) {
try {
$user | Remove-ADUser -ErrorAction Stop -WhatIf
return $true
}
catch {
return $false
}
}
# if we get here, the user does not exist; returns $null
}
$delete = Read-host "Which user do you want to delete? (Type in username)."
# call your function and capture the result
$result = Remove-User $delete
if ($result -eq $true){
Write-Host "User $delete deleted succesfully!" -ForegroundColor Green
}
elseif ($result -eq $false){
Write-Host "An error occured while deleting user $delete" -ForegroundColor Red
}
else {
Write-Host "$delete does not exist." -ForegroundColor DarkGray
}
Note also that I have put in the -WhatIf switch. This switch ensures you will only get a message of what would happen. No user is actually deleted. Once you are satisfied the code does what you want, remove the -WhatIf switch.
Hope that helps

Answer 2

If you have rsat installed https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45520
remove-aduser https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/addsadministration/remove-aduser?view=win10-ps