Problems in deleting
a computer object

(with thanks to Chris Hughes)

You may come across a situation where a computer object cannot be deleted even though it appears you have full permissions over the computer. The reason for this is that a security precaution was put in place: "deny on delete subtree for all objects". This security setting prevents the accidental deletion of OUs and their objects, by forcing an OU to be empty before it is deleted. Consequently, one may not be able to delete a computer object if there is a printer shared from the computer in question.

To delete such a computer object in ADUC, select View, Users, Groups, and Computers as containers. When this is selected, you will be able to see the printer object on the computer and you can delete it. After that is deleted, you can then delete the computer.