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Entra / Microsoft 365 · Groups

Enable Microsoft 365 group creation control

Updates the Microsoft 365 Groups policy to restrict who can create new groups using a designated security group.

Connect & set up

Run these once per session. All scopes are read-only unless the script makes changes.

Connect-MgGraph -Scopes Directory.ReadWrite.All, Group.Read.All

Run it

The main script. Copy it, or download the .ps1 and run it from your console.

If ($GroupAllowedToCreate.length -eq $0) { Write-Host "No group name specified - please rerun"; break }
If ($OnOffSwitch -ne $True -and $OnOffSwitch -ne $False) { Write-Host "No mode specified - please rerun" ; break }
# Check that we have the right module loaded
Connect-MgGraph -Scopes Directory.ReadWrite.All, Group.Read.All
# Just for formatting...
If ($OnOffSwitch -eq $True) {
$Control = "On"
} Else {
$Control = "Off"
}
# Check whether we can find the group and if we find more than one, ask the administrator to select a group
$Filter = "displayname eq '" + $GroupAllowedToCreate + "'"
[array]$Group = (Get-MgGroup -filter $Filter)
If (!$Group) {
Write-Host ("Can't find the group identifier for {0} - is it the correct group name?" -f $GroupAllowedToCreate) ; break }
If ($Group.Count -eq 1) { # Just one group found
[string]$GroupId = $Group.Id
} Elseif ($Group.Count -gt 1) { # More than one groupfound. Ask which to use
Clear-Host; Write-Host "More than one matching group was found."; [int]$i=1
ForEach ($GroupOption in $Group) {
Write-Host $i ":" $GroupOption.DisplayName; $i++
}
[Int]$Answer = Read-Host "Enter the number of the group to use"
If (($Answer -gt 0) -and ($Answer -le $i)) {
[int]$i = ($Answer-1)
[string]$GroupId = $Group[$i].ObjectId
[string]$GroupAllowedToCreate = $Group[$i].DisplayName
Write-Host "OK. Selected group is" $GroupAllowedToCreate
} #end if
}
Write-Host ("Setting group creation control to {0} using group name {1}." -f $Control, $GroupAllowedToCreate)
$PolicySettingsId = Get-MgBetaDirectorySetting | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -eq "Group.Unified"} | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Id
If (!$PolicySettingsId) { # No policy settings found for the tenant, so create it and extract the identifier
$PolicyTemplate = Get-MgBetaDirectorySettingTemplate | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -eq "Group.Unified"}
New-MgBetaDirectorySetting -TemplateId $PolicyTemplate.Id
$PolicySettingsId = (Get-MgBetaDirectorySetting | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -eq "Group.Unified"}).Id
} # End If
$PolicySettings = Get-MgBetaDirectorySetting -DirectorySettingId $PolicySettingsId
$Values = $PolicySettings.Values
($Values | Where-Object Name -eq 'EnableGroupCreation').Value = $OnOffSwitch
($Values | Where-Object Name -eq 'GroupCreationAllowedGroupId').Value = $GroupId
Update-MgBetaDirectorySetting -DirectorySettingId $PolicySettingsId -Values $Values
# Check what we have done and report the current status
$CurrentValues = Get-MgBetaDirectorySetting | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -eq "Group.Unified"}
$GroupId = $CurrentValues.Values | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq "GroupCreationAllowedGroupId" } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Value
$OnOffSwitch = $CurrentValues.Values | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq "EnableGroupCreation" } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Value
Switch ($OnOffSwitch) {
$True { $Control = "Unrestricted" }
$False { $Control = "Restricted" }
}
Clear-Host
Write-Host ""
[array]$Owners = (Get-MgGroupOwner -GroupId $GroupId)
[array]$OwnerNames = $Null
ForEach ($Owner in $Owners) {
$OwnerNames += (Get-MgUser -UserId $Owner.Id).DisplayName
}
[string]$OwnerNames = $OwnerNames -join ", "
Write-Host ("The name of the group defined to control group creation is {0} and its identifier is {1}. Its owners are {2}." -f (Get-MgGroup -GroupId $GroupId).DisplayName, $GroupId, $OwnerNames)
Write-Host ""
Write-Host “The accounts allowed to create new Microsoft 365 groups are:”
(Get-MgGroupMember -GroupId $GroupId).additionalProperties.displayName
Attribution