# Members vs Members of



## mastersmodo (Dec 4, 2014)

Can someone please give me a dumbed down explanation of the difference between "Members" and "Members of" in Active Directory?


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## lochlomonder (Jul 24, 2015)

*Members* delineates the Active Directory objects which belong to a particular security group, whereas *Members of* gives a list of the security groups a particular Active Directory object belongs to in the domain.


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## mastersmodo (Dec 4, 2014)

Thank you. So, for my limited understanding, the member tab will list any objects that are grouped in the specefic object I'm looking up. The Members of tab will have whatever objects the object I'm lookup up is a part of. I also see it as member = down tree and members of = up tree. Is that correct?


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## lochlomonder (Jul 24, 2015)

You're welcome. Perhaps I can clarify this for you by way of example...

Fred, Brian, Jean, and Emily are all accountants, and the Domain Administrator has granted them rights by creating a security group called *Accountants* and making them members. So, if you double-clicked on the *Accountants* security group object and then clicked on the *Member *tab, you'd see Fred, Brian, Jean, and Emily.

As well as being a member of *Accountants*, Emily is a member of a security group called *Accountants Supervisors*. So, if you double-clicked on the AD object for her account and chose the *Member Of* tab, you'd see *Accountants* and *Accountants Supervisors* listed there.


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## mastersmodo (Dec 4, 2014)

That's perfect thank you.


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## lochlomonder (Jul 24, 2015)

You're welcome. Glad I could help


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