Runs the prerequisites for uninstalling a domain controller in Active Directory.
Active Directory · Risk: Low · Documentation Verified
Last verified: 2026-10-26
Microsoft ADDSDeployment reference: Runs the prerequisites for uninstalling a domain controller in Active Directory. The syntax and selected example below are adapted from the pinned Windows Server 2025 reference. Module availability, target configuration and delegated permissions determine whether it can run in your environment. Documentation and parameter text: Microsoft, CC BY 4.0; formatting adapted by Cmdlet World. No execution testing is claimed.
Use an account with the target resource permissions documented for Test-ADDSDomainControllerUninstallation. Modifying administrative cmdlets may require elevation or delegated administration. This catalog does not assert that ordinary users can execute the command.
Supported environments
Windows / ADDSDeployment · Windows Server 2025 documentation; feature/module prerequisites apply
Parameters
-Credential
Specifies the user name and password that corresponds to the account used to install the domain controller. To prompt the user to supply a password, use Runs the prerequisites (only) to determine if installing a domain controller is possible that includes a DNS server for the corp.contoso.com domain, using domain administrator credentials, and then prompts the user to correctly specify the Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) password. Use the Get-Credential cmdlet in place of an existing PSCredential type. This parameter will cause Windows PowerShell to prompt the user to enter credentials using the Windows security login UI.
-DemoteOperationMasterRole
Indicates that forced demotion should continue even if an operations master role is discovered on the domain controller from which AD DS is being removed.
-DnsDelegationRemovalCredential
Specifies the account credentials to use when you create or remove the DNS delegation. If you do not specify a value, the account credentials that you specify for the AD DS installation or removal are used to remove the DNS delegation. As an alternative, you can specify the asterisk (*) to prompt the user to enter credentials.
-Force
Forces the command to run without asking for user confirmation.
-ForceRemoval (required)
Indicates that the cmdlet forces the removal of a domain controller. Use this parameter to force the uninstall of AD DS if you need to remove the domain controller and do not have connectivity to other domain controllers within the domain topology.
-IgnoreLastDCInDomainMismatch
Indicates that Windows PowerShell ignores any inconsistency that it detects with the value that you specify for the LastDomainControllerInDomain parameter. For instance, if you specify LastDomainControllerInDomain but Windows PowerShell detects that there is actually another active domain controller in the domain, you can specify the IgnoreLastDCInDomainMismatch parameter to have Windows PowerShell continue the removal of AD DS from the domain controller despite the inconsistency that it has detected. Similarly, if you do not specify LastDomainControllerInDomain but Windows PowerShell is unable to detect that another domain controller is in the domain, you can specify IgnoreLastDCInDomainMismatch to have Windows PowerShell continue to remove AD DS from the domain controller.
-IgnoreLastDnsServerForZone
Indicates that the cmdlet continues the removal of AD DS despite the fact that the domain controller is the last DNS server for one or more of the Active Directory-integrated DNS zones that it hosts.
-LastDomainControllerInDomain
Indicates that the cmdlet removes AD DS from the last controller in the domain.
-LocalAdministratorPassword
Specifies a local administrator account password when AD DS is removed from a domain controller. In earlier releases, where uninstall of AD DS was done using Dcpromo.exe for demotion, the default was to allow an empty password for this setting. In Windows PowerShell, the ADDS Deployment module requires that a non-empty password string value be assigned. If a value is not provided for this parameter, you are prompted to enter a value for the password at the Windows PowerShell prompt. The password value must be a secure string. If this parameter is not specified, the cmdlet prompts you to enter and confirm a masked password. This is the preferred usage when running the cmdlet interactively. If additionally there are no other arguments specified with the cmdlet, you are prompted to enter a masked password for this parameter but no confirmation of the password entered is made. This is not recommended as it could allow a mistyped password to be configured. Another available advanced option is to use the ConvertTo-SecureString cmdlet and specify the password string inline as unmasked console input, which is also not a recommended security best practice in production deployments.
-NoRebootOnCompletion
Indicates that the cmdlet does not restart the computer upon completion, regardless of success. By default, reboot upon completion occurs when this cmdlet is used and this parameter is omitted.
-RemoveApplicationPartitions
Indicates that the cmdlet removes application partitions during the removal of AD DS from a domain controller.
-RemoveDnsDelegation
Indicates that the cmdlet preserves DNS delegations that point to this DNS server from the parent DNS zone. By default, this parameter is set to $false, which means DNS delegations that point to this server from the parent DNS zone will not be retained after uninstallation of the domain controller. This setting corresponds to the earlier Dcpromo.exe parameter default of /RemoveDNSDelegation:Yes.
-RetainDCMetadata
Indicates that the domain controller should retain metadata for the domain after removal of AD DS.
Prerequisites
Windows with the ADDSDeployment module and the Windows feature or management tools that provide it. Confirm target connectivity and version compatibility using the linked Microsoft reference.
Security considerations
This is a read-oriented cmdlet; protect any sensitive results and check the documented effects of your selected parameters.
Examples
Example 1: Test if uninstalling a domain controller is possible
Test-ADDSDomainControllerUninstallation
This command runs the prerequisites to determine if the uninstall of an additional domain controller in a domain is possible. The command also prompts the user to set and confirm the local Administrator password prior to completing the uninstallation process. Source: Microsoft, CC BY 4.0; transcript prompt/output removed. This example was not executed.