Powershell script to retrieve display name of objects in an AD container

the simplest way is to install the free Quest cmdlets from www.quest.com/powershell

or you can do this

$OU = [ADSI]"LDAP://<container path>"
$OU.psbase.children | %{$_.displayname}

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If you want a recursive list... it will be slightly more complicated.

$OU = [ADSI]"LDAP://<container path>"
$searcher = new-object System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher($OU,"Objectclass=*")
$searcher.pagesize = 1000
$searcher.findall() | %{$_.psbase.properties['cn'][0]}

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You can use export-csv to output to a csv file, but you only want one property so a CSV doesn't make sense. Just use out-file

Great, that worked, I am having trouble exporting though.  The system hangs with: >> and a blinking cursor and never gets done. when I user the following command:

$OU = [ADSI]"LDAP:// OU=Exchange Generics,DC=AD,DC=SANNET,DC=GOV
$OU.psbase.children | %{$_.displayname} | select-object displayname |
@{name="displayname";expression={$_.Identity.ToString().Split("\")[0]}}, Displayname, Identity | Export-csv -path:"C:\displaynames.csv"

Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong?  I get no errors, the command just never completes.