group policy

[nodiaque]

Hi, I would like to know if someone know how to change a group policy (gpedit.msc) without login in (well, while the installation of windows).

What I want to do with that is rename the administrator account like I used to do, but I want it already done (so I don't need to create another admin account that will change that)

tks

[ravashaak]

Here's what I do to change the name of my admin account during the unattended install:

%systemdrive%\install\CUsrMgr -u "administrator" -m \\%computername% -r "bigkahuna"
%systemdrive%\install\CUsrMgr -u "bigkahuna" -m \\%computername% -S passwordneverexpires
%systemdrive%\install\CUsrMgr -u "bigkahuna" -m \\%computername% +S mustchangepassword

I utilize cusrmgr.exe to accomplish this and other account-related tasks. It really is a good tool once you establish the needed syntax.

The first line of code accomplishes your goal, changing the default administrator account name to "bigkahuna". The next two lines of code I just throw in for free. Maybe you will find them useful, or maybe not. Respectively, they unset the "password never expires" property for the account, and require a password change at next logon (since I don't like to include my real admin password in the winnt.sif file). With this setup, when I perform my first manual logon, the account has already been renamed, and during authentication will prompt me to change my password - a nice reminder!). BTW, you must first unset the "password never expires" property before setting the "must change password" property.

- Ravashaak

[Denney]

I use a program called "renuser.exe":

set /p NewAdmin="Enter a new administrator name: "
%systemdrive%\MSA\Utilities\renuser.exe Administrator %NewAdmin%

Note: change %NewAdmin% to the name of your administrator and remove the "set" line. They are there to allow me to rename the administrator account on the fly during setup. This is done in "cmdlines.txt" file BTW.

[prathapml]

See my post here for the easiest way to do it. You can run that tool before first-login (the way you want to do it) as well.

[Denney]

I have to wonder why the creator of these programs made "renuser.exe"... Seems "netuser.exe" from the same author does the same thing "renuser.exe" does...

[prathapml]

I would like a download link/home-page to renuser.exe please.......

[nodiaque]

thanks, but where do we get cusrmgr.exe? I can't find it

tks

[ravashaak]

It's a Windows 2000 Resource Kit utility.

- Ravashaak

[Denney]

Here ya go.

RENUSER.EXE

[prathapml]

Thanks for the download, got the utility and ran it (not tested it though) - it runs fine. The nice thing about it seems to be that it can even rename a domain user.

But then, I don't see any extra features in it than in the NetUser tool. Also, if both were made by the same author, which is newer and which is older?

As for who is the author of both the tools:

RenUser does not offer any command-line switches, it is a simple and direct tool, and the "/?" switch does not reveal who made it.

NetUser offers an extra command-line argument to make the user's password never expire, and running "/?" yields the info that it was made in Dec1997 by Siemens.

[Denney]

Looking at netuser (which I didn't have before), I must say that you should use it. Netuser has more features that renuser and netuser can do the same things.

I'm going to ditch renuser in favor of netuser because it offers more features.