System.DirectoryServices Namespaces

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The System.DirectoryServices namespaces contain types that provide access to Active Directory from managed code.

Namespaces

Namespace Description
System.DirectoryServices The System.DirectoryServices namespace provides easy access to Active Directory Domain Services from managed code. The namespace contains two component classes, DirectoryEntry and DirectorySearcher, which use the Active Directory Services Interfaces (ADSI) technology. ADSI is the set of interfaces that Microsoft provides as a flexible tool for working with a variety of network providers. ADSI gives the administrator the ability to locate and manage resources on a network with relative ease, regardless of the size of the network.
System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement The System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement namespace provides uniform access and manipulation of user, computer, and group security principals across the multiple principal stores: Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS), and Machine SAM (MSAM). System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement manages directory objects independent of the System.DirectoryServices namespace.
System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory The System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory namespace provides a high level abstraction object model that builds around Microsoft Active Directory services tasks. The Active Directory service concepts such as forest, domain, site, subnet, partition, and schema are part of the object model.
System.DirectoryServices.Protocols The System.DirectoryServices.Protocols namespace provides the methods defined in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) version 3 (V3) and Directory Services Markup Language (DSML) version 2.0 (V2) standards.