Windows 2000/XP computer name query

[coolio2009]

Hi guys – just had a question about nLite. I'm wanting to make some bootable dvds for a client of mine which has some XP and Win2k images for them. What I want them to be able to do is pop the DVD in and the OS installs without the client needing to do anything. The question is, can I make nLite assign a different "computer name" to each install? The reason this is important is they've got hundreds of machines and if they're gonna do this to more than one machine at a time, I want it to (obviously) have a different name. Can it be done in there?

[DarkShadows]

First, I don't use nLite. But all nLite really does is create a working Windows unattended installation image. You must still answer all the questions that go into all the Windows Setup blanks during an attended installation. In unattended installation, the Computer name is specified in the winnt.sif file, so this would require a different image for each unique PC—not very effective or re-usable. Generating several hundred unique PC names is beyond nLite's scope, but even more troubling is how to generate those computer names, and keeping track of them while keeping them mutually exclusive.

I believe something like assigning unique Computer names is better accomplished outside of unattended installation, either by a Script (VBScript or other) that perhaps pulls the names from a shared list on a server (marking each name as used as the script assigns it), or manually entered by a human during installation. Or, it may be possible for a script to acquire a unique hardware serial number (BIOS DMI information, motherboard serial number, NIC MAC address, etc.) and use that as the basis for unique PC name. There are most likely utilities for this that you could Google for.

Or, after creating a working Windows installation image (one for each PC model and OS), you could just edit the Winnt.sif file inside the image (before burning it to media) and remove the ComputerName = parameter. This will cause Windows Setup to prompt for a Computer name during installation (but all other questions would still be pre-answered). Then it is a human decision what to name each PC.

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Besides nLites EULA explicitly says it is NOT for commercial or business purposes at this time.