ADSI Edit

ADSI Edit is another tool from Microsoft that provides low-level access to the actual attribute data in directory objects. As its name implies, ADSI Edit uses the ADSI API for interacting with directory objects, instead of using the LDAP API directly. It is much more graphical a tool than LDP is, using standard Windows tree views and property pages rather than the more "text-based" LDP approach. It is packaged as an MMC snap-in.

ADSI Edit has a useful security descriptor editor that does not hide some of the advanced settings, as does the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC (see the next section).

The ADAM version of ADSI Edit includes support for setting and changing passwords of ADAM security principals, which is difficult to do without writing code (although it can be done in LDP with the correct syntax).

ADSI Edit is distributed in the same manner as LDP (Windows Admin Pack and ADAM distributions).

It is possible to use ADSI Edit from a nondomain joined machine, but it works best when using Windows security features for binding.