Quick Active Directory search with “pure” PowerShell

As much as I like tools designed for work AD – both from Microsoft and Quest – I’m sometimes amazed how quicker pure ADSI/ ADSISearcher calls can be. Today I said to myself: enough. I know LDAP Filters/ ActiveDirectory attributes good enough to write simple function for myself that would give me all advantages cmdlets give of former, and lightning speed of latter.

Also: I know, I can use LDAPFilters in either tools, but I do not like that I have to pass full filter, I wanted something interactive-work friendly. Normally you have to move back and forth (unless you always start with “(&())”) and always remember to quote everything (or escape brackets).