How to delete an organisational unit (OU) that is protected against accidental deletion

When a new organizational unit (OU) (object) is created in ‘Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)’ there is an option called ‘Protect container from accidental deletion’. If this is ticked at the point of creation then you will receive the following message when you try to delete the OU at a later point.

“You do not have sufficient privileges to delete <OU Name>, or this object is protected from accidental deletion”.

Although, this is a useful safe guard it may become necessary to delete an OU that is no longer required. In order to do this, the following work around can be used :

1. Open ‘Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)’.
2. Click on View > Advanced features (ADUC will refresh)
3. Navigate to the OU that is to be deleted > Right click > properties > Object tab
4. Untick ‘Protect object from accidental deletion’ >Click Apply > click OK.
5. Highlight the OU and delete

The OU will now be deleted from ‘Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC)’.