The New-MgUser cmdlet creates a new account. To run New-MgUser, we need a password profile. A password profile is a Microsoft Graph resource that contains a password and associated settings. It can be as simple as a password with no settings, but a password profile can also include settings like ForceChangePasswordNextSignIn to force a user account to change their password after they next sign into Azure AD.
New-MgUser uses a hash table for the password profile. The example code shown below populates the hash table with a new password (generated using the GeneratePassword .NET method as a random 10-character string containing special characters, numbers, and upper- and lower-case letters). The ForceChangePasswordNextSignIn setting is True to force the new user to set a new password after they sign in.
Name Value
---- -----
Password 4i_gb6OK?{
ForceChangePasswordNextSignIn True
Creating a New Azure AD User Account with New-MgUser
To create the new account, run the New-MgUser cmdlet. It’s obviously important to include as many details as possible about the new user account, especially the settings exposed by Microsoft 365 in places like the user profile card or the Organization Explorer feature in Outlook and Teams.
# Azure AD Account Creation - the hard coded way
$DisplayName = "Jeff Atkinson"
$NewUser = New-MgUser -UserPrincipalName "Jeff.Atkinson@Office365ITPros.com" `
-DisplayName "Jeff Atkinson (Information Technology)" `
-PasswordProfile $NewPasswordProfile -AccountEnabled `
-MailNickName Jeff.Atkinson -City NYC `
-CompanyName "Office 365 for IT Pros" -Country "United States" `
-Department "IT Operations" -JobTitle "GM Operations" `
-BusinessPhones "+1 676 830 1101" -MobilePhone "+1 617 4466615" `
-State "New York" -StreetAddress "1, Avenue of the Americas" `
-Surname "Atkinson" -GivenName "Jeff" `
-UsageLocation "US" -OfficeLocation "NYC"
If ($NewUser) { Write-Host ("Successfully added the {0} account" -f $NewUser.DisplayName)
} Else { Write-Host ("Failure adding the {0} account - exiting" -f $DisplayName); break }
The usage location is a two-character ISO-3166 country code to show where the account consumes services, and it’s important to set the value correctly so that the license assignment works properly. After creating a new account, you’ll need to assign it some licenses to allow access to Microsoft 365 services. See this article for more information.
The code to add a new account shown above is a one-off command. However, it’s the principal that counts and it is straightforward to take the code and amend it so that it uses parameters or input such as a CSV file (like that shown in Figure 1) holding details of new users. In the latter case, after loading the records into an array, you could then loop through the records to add each account. Here’s an example of doing just that:
Figure 1: CSV file to drive Azure AD account creation
To complete the account creation process, you might want to send email to the administrator accounts with details of the new account (Figure 2). This task is easily accomplished with a Graph method to create and send email (explained in this article).
Figure 2: Email notification about the creation of a new Azure AD user account
To help illustrate the flow of creating a new account complete with license assignment and email notification, I’ve uploaded a script to GitHub. The code is not a functional script because it contains once-off commands. Instead, it’s for you to play with and create your own version.
Updating a User Account with a New Password
To change an Azure AD account password, create a password profile as above and then run the Update-MgUser cmdlet. If you don’t want to force the user to create a new password after they sign in, make sure that the ForceChangePasswordNextSignIn setting in the password profile is false, and then run:
Creating a new Azure AD user account with the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK isn’t difficult. The hardest thing might be to come up with a good temporary password to assign to the account. Good luck if you’re moving scripts from the old Azure AD or MSOL modules before Microsoft deprecates these modules in 2023. It just takes a little time and maybe a lot of persistence.
Insight like this doesn’t come easily. You’ve got to know the technology and understand how to look behind the scenes. Benefit from the knowledge and experience of the Office 365 for IT Pros team by subscribing to the best eBook covering Office 365 and the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
One Reply to “Creating New Azure AD User Accounts and Updating Passwords with the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK”
Thank you for showing the new method for this. The only thing that concerns me (and maybe it’s because I’m missing some pieces of information), but with PS7 the default going forward which doesn’t use .NET, the Password Generator function doesn’t work. I loved using this for other scripts but you need to use 5.1. Do you know if 5.1 will continue to be available in later versions of Windows or will they be incorporating these helpful components into 7 or later?
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Please try again.","receipt_payee":"Paid to","receipt_statement_descriptor":"This will show up on your statement as","receipt_date":"Date","receipt_transaction_id":"Transaction ID","receipt_transaction_amount":"Amount","refund_payer":"Refund from","login":"Log in to manage your payments","manage_payments":"Manage Payments","transactions_title":"Your Transactions","transaction_title":"Transaction Receipt","transaction_period":"Plan Period","arrangements_title":"Your Plans","arrangement_title":"Manage Plan","arrangement_details":"Plan Details","arrangement_id_title":"Plan ID","arrangement_payment_method_title":"Payment Method","arrangement_amount_title":"Plan Amount","arrangement_renewal_title":"Next renewal date","arrangement_action_cancel":"Cancel Plan","arrangement_action_cant_cancel":"Cancelling is currently not available.","arrangement_action_cancel_double":"Are you sure you'd like to cancel?","arrangement_cancelling":"Cancelling Plan...","arrangement_cancelled":"Plan Cancelled","arrangement_failed_to_cancel":"Failed to cancel plan","back_to_plans":"\u2190 Back to Plans","update_payment_method_verb":"Update","sca_auth_description":"Your have a pending renewal payment which requires authorization.","sca_auth_verb":"Authorize renewal payment","sca_authing_verb":"Authorizing payment","sca_authed_verb":"Payment successfully authorized!","sca_auth_failed":"Unable to authorize! Please try again.","login_button_text":"Log in","login_form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","uppercase_search":"Search","lowercase_search":"search","uppercase_page":"Page","lowercase_page":"page","uppercase_items":"Items","lowercase_items":"items","uppercase_per":"Per","lowercase_per":"per","uppercase_of":"Of","lowercase_of":"of","back":"Back to plans","zip_code_placeholder":"Zip\/Postal Code","download_file_button_text":"Download File","input_field_instructions":{"tip_amount":{"placeholder_text":"How much would you like to tip?","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"invalid_curency":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please choose a valid currency."}},"recurring":{"placeholder_text":"Recurring","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"}},"name":{"placeholder_text":"Name on Credit Card","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please enter the name on your card."}},"privacy_policy":{"terms_title":"Terms and conditions","terms_body":null,"terms_show_text":"View Terms","terms_hide_text":"Hide Terms","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."},"unchecked":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please agree to the terms."},"checked":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."}},"email":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"not_an_email_address":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Make sure you have entered a valid email address"}},"note_with_tip":{"placeholder_text":"Your note here...","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"not_empty_initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"saving":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Saving note..."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Note successfully saved!"},"error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to save note note at this time. Please try again."}},"email_for_login_code":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."}},"login_code":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."}},"stripe_all_in_one":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"success":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"invalid_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is not a valid credit card number."},"invalid_expiry_month":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration month is invalid."},"invalid_expiry_year":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is invalid."},"invalid_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is invalid."},"incorrect_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incorrect."},"incomplete_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incomplete."},"incomplete_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incomplete."},"incomplete_expiry":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration date is incomplete."},"incomplete_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code is incomplete."},"expired_card":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card has expired."},"incorrect_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incorrect."},"incorrect_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code failed validation."},"invalid_expiry_year_past":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is in the past"},"card_declined":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card was declined."},"missing":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"There is no card on a customer that is being charged."},"processing_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"An error occurred while processing the card."},"invalid_request_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to process this payment, please try again or use alternative method."},"invalid_sofort_country":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The billing country is not accepted by SOFORT. Please try another country."}}}},"fetched_oembed_html":false}
Thank you for showing the new method for this. The only thing that concerns me (and maybe it’s because I’m missing some pieces of information), but with PS7 the default going forward which doesn’t use .NET, the Password Generator function doesn’t work. I loved using this for other scripts but you need to use 5.1. Do you know if 5.1 will continue to be available in later versions of Windows or will they be incorporating these helpful components into 7 or later?