chekm8

Guys, Here's a question for you. "Password never expires", how can I set/check that using the command line? I know it's easier to just click on it but I need to implement this to more than 2000 boxes. On our recent Windows XP build, we decided to create local accounts to the box and forgot to set the "Password never expires" button. Now they're starting to expire and would like to know if there was a quick and easy way to set that field. The accounts are local only to the box and isn't managed by AD. Sure I can create policies on AD but there are other issues that might come about if I try that route. I would like to push a script (be it login script, SMS, etc...) to permanently flag that field. I've tried NET USER and that doesn't seem to flag the field. Sources for NET USE/NET USER; http://www.ss64.com/nt/netuseroptions.html http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;251394 Any input would be greatly appriciated. Thank you. Title Edited - Please follow new posting rules from now on. --Zxian

shoot! forgot to add. I know I read it somewhere on this site I believe, but I'm having a problem after PE finishes the Prep. I have to manually close out of PE for XP to start it's build. Tried the "exit" command in STARTNET.COMD and it seems to just hang. Any suggestions? TIA.

Sweet! Thanks for the great info guys! I editted STARTNET.CMD and got it to work. I've managed to get PE to just format the drive completely in NTFS format, then mapped out my shared drive and kick off the unattend.txt. I bypassed Diskpart completely and it still worked. format c: /fs:NTFS /q /Y net use drive: \\server\share password /USER:domain\login i:\i386\winnt32.exe /s:i:\i386 /unattend:i:\unattend.txt Weird how Microsoft switched back to "/unattend" from "/u". Anyway, I got that to work so I can test out some builds. Now I just need to tweak a few things so I can map to the nearest server depending on the IP address. You guys are kool!

Morning all, Been lurking on and off on this forum and have gotten some great help, but can't seem to quite pinpoint my issue. A quick breakdown of what I have going. Have an unattended instal running for our W2K desktops using .BAT files. The process below has been proven and has ran without any issues and has had "0" user input other than to remove the CD from the drive (which I found here, can be automated) PROCESS; 1. CD running DOS boots a. determines NIC and drops propper drivers b. determines IP address and based on IP, maps propper server mapping c. drops flag (small Ghost img) and reboots d. after reboot, if flag (in 1c.) is found, asks for computer name which is save it to the .UDF on network 2. then runs Unattend.bat from network location a. runs the W2K unattend.txt which formats and does it's thing b. copies over the .UDF and names the box based on what's in the UDF c. calls out APPS.BAT file that installs applications 3. Application install starts So now we are moving to Windows XP. I've replaced the i386 files with that of WXP on my network share. I would like to have the same process as above work but ran into a drive formatting issue. XP doesn't build because the partition size is not large enough due to the fact that the "ExtendOemPartition=1" doesn't seem to work anymore under XP. I've tried to turn that switch off so that it prompts the user to format the drive and it works, but that defeats the purpose of having and unattended install. I would like that have that piece still automated. So got a hold of WinPE 2004, tried the integrating DISKPART into old process but can't be run in DOS mode so it looks like I need to change step 1 to run from WinPE. Did some manual testing on VirtualPC and I can get WINBOM.INI to partition the drive and conver to NTFS. But when I run the UNATTEND.BAT on the network, I get "ACCESS DENIED". What am I doing wrong? Is there any way to leave the process at the top alone and just utilize the DISKPART? It seems like using WINPE and WXP would be faster to build these boxes. Also, since WinPE should be the new standard, how do I tweak Process 1? I can probably eliminate Process 1a and 1c since WinPE takes care of that. What do I need in WINBOM.INI to make it work so that it partitions the drive, maps to the proper server and runs the Unattend.bat? Or, partition the drive, reboot the box, run through the process above (without 1a/1c)? Using this code to partition the drive; [DiskConfig] Disk1 = Disk1.config [Disk1.config] WipeDisk = Yes Size1 = * PartitionType1 = Primary SetActive1 = Yes FileSystem1 = NTFS QuickFormat1 = Yes Thank you in advance for the help.