The preferred method to reset the password of single or multiple user accounts has always been PowerShell. You can use Set-ADAccountPassword PowerShell cmdlet to perform password reset operations for single or multiple users. It is important to note that Set-ADAccountPassword cmdlet provides the “-Identity” parameter, which can also accept SamAccountName of a user account apart from accepting distinguished name and user object GUID. This is the major advantage over the Dsmod command line tool. To reset the password for a single user account, execute the PowerShell command below:

Set-ADAccountPassword –Identity “CN=JohnThomas,OU=Production Users,DC=TechGenix,DC=Com” –Reset –NewPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText “ThisPassword001” -Force)

The above command resets the password of a user account specified in the distinguished name format. If you wish to use SamAccountName of the user in the Set-ADAccountPassword cmdlet, use the PowerShell command below:

Set-ADAccountPassword –Identity JohnThomas –Reset –NewPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText “ThisPassword001” -Force)

UserFile = “C:\Temp\UserWithPass.CSV”
Foreach ($AllItems in $UserFile)
{
$SamAccountName = $AllItems.SamAccountName
$ThisPassword = $AllItems.Password
Set-ADAccountPassword –Identity $SamAccountName –Reset –NewPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText “$ThisPassword” -Force)
}

The above script assumes that a CSV file by the name “UserWithPass” is created under C:\Temp that contains SamAccountName and New Password of users. The script checks each username and password from the CSV file and then resets using the Set-ADAccountPassword cmdlet.