Getting Started with AD FastReporter

This guide walks you through installing AD FastReporter, choosing a license, and generating your first Active Directory report.

Step 1: Download and Install

1. Download the installer from the AD FastReporter product page
2. Run the installer and follow the on-screen prompts
3. If your system does not have the .NET 10 Desktop Runtime installed, the installer will prompt you to download it. See System Requirements for details.
4. Once installed, launch AD FastReporter from the Start Menu or desktop shortcut

Step 2: Choose Your License

On first launch, AD FastReporter shows the license activation screen. You have three options:

Continue as Free — Click “Continue as Free version” to start using AD FastReporter immediately. The Free edition lets you generate and view all 250+ built-in reports. Features like export, custom reports, scheduling, and charts are available in the Pro edition.

Enter a Pro or Trial license key — If you have a license key (purchased or trial), enter it in the license key field and click “Register.” Your Pro features will be activated immediately.

Request a Trial — Click “Try Pro for Free” to open the trial request page in your browser. After submitting the form, you will receive a trial license key by email that unlocks all Pro features for the trial period.

You can change your license at any time through Settings → License or by clicking the license icon in the sidebar.

Step 3: Verify Your Connection

AD FastReporter automatically detects your current Active Directory domain. If your workstation is domain-joined and your user account has read access to the directory, the default connection works out of the box — no configuration needed.

You can verify this by looking at the connection dropdown at the top of the main window. It should show your current domain with a connected status.

If you need to connect to a different domain, specify alternate credentials, or limit the scope to a specific OU, see Managing Connections.

Step 4: Generate Your First Report

Here is how to generate a simple report of all user accounts in your domain:

1. Click “Reports” in the left sidebar
2. Select the “Users” category
3. Under the “Generic” subcategory, select “All users”
4. The report form opens in a new tab showing the selected fields. You can add or remove fields by checking/unchecking them in the fields list. Common fields include: Name, Display Name, Email, Department, Last Logon, Account Status.
5. Click the “Generate” button in the toolbar
6. AD FastReporter queries your Active Directory and displays the results in a data grid. The log panel at the bottom shows progress, including the number of records found and any warnings.

You can now scroll through the results, sort by any column, and search within the data.

Step 5: Export Results (Pro)

With the Pro edition, you can export the generated report:

1. In the report results toolbar, click one of the export buttons: XLSX, CSV, HTML, PDF, XML, ODS, or JSON
2. Choose a save location and file name
3. The report is exported to the selected format

You can also send the report directly by email — click the Email button in the toolbar and choose the delivery format (plain text, or CSV/XLSX/HTML attachment). Email delivery requires SMTP configuration in Settings → Email.

Where Data is Stored

AD FastReporter uses a local SQLite database to store your configuration, custom report forms, connections, and generated reports. The database is located at:

%ProgramData%\AlbusBit\ADFastReporter\adfastreporter.db

This is a machine-wide location, so the same database is shared if multiple users on the same computer run AD FastReporter. No data is sent to external servers — everything stays on your local machine.

If you are upgrading from an older version that stored the database in %LocalAppData%\AlbusBit\ADFastReporter\, AD FastReporter automatically migrates the database to the new shared location on first launch.

What to Explore Next

Now that you have AD FastReporter running, here are some next steps depending on what you want to do:

• Learn the interface — See Main Interface for a detailed overview of the application layout
• Browse available reports — See Report Categories & Built-in Reports for a walkthrough of all eight categories and their subcategories
• Create custom reports — See Custom Report Forms to build your own reports with specific fields and filters
• Automate reporting — See Scheduled Tasks to set up automated daily reports with export and email delivery
• NIS2 compliance — See NIS2 Compliance if you need to address EU NIS2 Directive requirements for your Active Directory
• Connect to other domains — See Managing Connections to report across multiple domains or forests