Preserve attributes in tombstone objects

To specify an attribute to be preserved in the tombstone object, first locate this attribute in the Active Directory schema, then update the searchFlags attribute of the schema object.

There is vendor-acquired software (for example, ADSI Edit) that allows you to update the searchFlags attribute of the schema object.

Usually none of the bits in the searchFlags bit mask are set (the value is 0). Set searchFlags to 8 (0x00000008) if you want Active Directory to save the particular attribute in the tombstone object when the original object is deleted.