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What is Active Directory?
Active Directory (AD) is a directory service developed by Microsoft for managing and organizing network resources, such as users, computers, and other devices in a network.

The history of Active Directory can be traced back to the early days of Microsoft's networking efforts. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Microsoft began developing its own networking protocols, such as NetBIOS and SMB (Server Message Block). These protocols allowed Windows computers to communicate with each other over a network.

With the release of Windows NT in 1993, Microsoft introduced its first directory service called NT Domain Services. This service provided basic user authentication and resource management capabilities but was limited in scalability and functionality.
In response to this limitation, Microsoft developed Active Directory for use with Windows 2000. Active Directory introduced many new features such as hierarchical organization of resources, support for multiple domains, and improved security mechanisms.

Today, Active Directory is widely used by organizations of all sizes to manage their networks. Its purpose is to provide a single point of control for managing users, computers, groups, and other resources on a network. With Active Directory, administrators can easily create and manage user accounts, assign permissions to resources, configure group policies, and much more.