AD Path Defaults

In many cases, a default value will be used for -Path if no value is specified.
The rules for determining the default value are given below.

Note that rules listed first are evaluated first and once a default value can be determined, no further rules will be evaluated.

In AD DS environments, a default value for -Path will be set in the following cases:

• If the cmdlet is run from an Active Directory PowerShell provider drive, the parameter is set to the current path of the provider drive.
• If the cmdlet has a default path, this will be used. For example: in New-ADUser, the Path parameter would default to the Users container.
• If none of the previous cases apply, the default value of Path will be set to the default partition or naming context of the target domain.

In AD LDS environments, a default value for -Path will be set in the following cases:

• If the cmdlet is run from an Active Directory PowerShell provider drive, the parameter is set to the current path of the provider drive.
• If the cmdlet has a default path, this will be used. For example: in New-ADUser, the Path parameter would default to the Users container.

If the target AD LDS instance has a default naming context, the default value of Path will be set to the default naming context.

To specify a default naming context for an AD LDS environment, set the msDS-defaultNamingContext
property of the Active Directory directory service agent (DSA) object (nTDSDSA) for the AD LDS instance.

• If none of the previous cases apply, the Path parameter will not take any default value.
  

“If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads” ~ Anatole France

Related PowerShell Cmdlets:

AD commands