Admin Password Problem - there is none!

[bigred]

Well I'm doing something wrong...but I can't figure out what...no matter what I do, I'm not getting an admin password created...I'm wondering if any of you could take a look and see what I'm doing wrong....

In case you're wondering, I've done this quite a few times before, so this really shouldn't be happening.... sigh

No matter what I do, an admin password is not created..which messes up my auto-login, RunOnceEx, etc.... what's wrong?

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
    AutoPartition=0
    MsDosInitiated="0"   
    UnattendedInstall="Yes"   

[Unattended]
    UnattendMode=FullUnattended
    UnattendSwitch="yes"
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    OemPreinstall=Yes
    TargetPath=\WINDOWS
    Filesystem=*

[GuiUnattended]
    AdminPassword="windows"
    EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
    OEMSkipRegional=1
    TimeZone=4
    OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
    ProductKey=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
    FullName="Owner Name"
    OrgName="NAME"
    ComputerName=WORKSTATION

[Display]
    BitsPerPel=32
    Xresolution=1024
    YResolution=768
    Vrefresh=70

[TapiLocation]
    CountryCode=107
    AreaCode=604

[RegionalSettings]
    LanguageGroup=1
    SystemLocale=00001009
    UserLocale=00001009
    InputLocale=0409:00000409

[Branding]
    BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes

[URL]
    Home_Page=http://www.google.ca
    Search_Page=http://www.google.ca

[Proxy]
    Proxy_Enable=0
    Use_Same_Proxy=1

[Identification]
    JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP

[Networking]
    InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[MCT]

try removing quotes?

[bigred]

Well I did that once...but hey, I'll try anything...so I'll do it again to confirm.

I'm not sure if it makes a difference but this is for XP Home....I'll post after I try without quootes...

Edit: Will leave it running and post in the morning.

[SC00BS]

This is what i have in my winnt.sif and it works fine.

[GuiUnattended]

AdminPassword=mrsmith

AutoLogon=Yes

AutoLogonCount=2

OEMSkipRegional=1

TimeZone=85

OemSkipWelcome=1

[code]

[bigred]

I'm just curious....is that for XP Pro or Home Scoobs?

[Gustaaf]

HI,

There is no difference in the winnt.sif for admin password when it

comes to XP PRO, HOME. Both systems have local admin accounts.

I too am not using quotes, and it works.

Yes., MS is a bit mysterious with the unattend file format.

Example:

ProductKey="XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"

ProductID="XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"

ProductID works for me, But ProductKey is officially documentend everywhere, but

does not work for me. ???

FYI, I use them both, without glitch. But I verified that ProductKey to be an issue for me.

Maybe there is newer features in winnt.sif file format since SP2

[bigred]

Thanks to those of you who have taken the time to respond...

After trying without quotes around the admin password......it still doesn't work.....

Does anyone else have any ideas? This is drivin' me nuts...!!!!

[jbm]

What happens when you go into safe mode and try to log on

the administrator account. I believe XP home will only allow

logon of the administrator account in safe mode. Or create

another account in the administrator group and set that to

auto logon.

[bigred]

jbm.....When my unattended install runs...it stops twice (both times when my auto-login was setup to allow the unattended install to continue). I can get by that by clicking OK on the error and then just clicking on the username (on the welcome screen) to login.

Once I'm logged in, the User Accounts section of the Control Panel shows my account as being created, but with no password.

Once I create a password I can then log in as Administrator in XP Home.

With that said, I'm not sure I follow what you want me to do, or how it might help. Sorry ...haha...maybe I just don't think well this early in the morning. Could you explain, if you still think that will help?

Thanks...I appreciate the help...

[jbm]

The book I have "Windows XP inside and out" says that XP HOME

only allows logon of the administrator account in safe mode.

So I thought that might be the problem. I guess that still

doesn't answer why you can't create a password for the admin

account during setup. And it appears that home only allows

logon of the admin account in safe mode unless it has a password.

I'm going totry this on vmware with xp home to see what happens

I'm not going to be much help. Tried creating an unattended install

of XP Home and keep getting the following error

Installation failed E:\I386\asms Parameters incorrect

Solved the above error but still don't have an answer

When I set the administrator account to autolog on I get

an error could not log you on check your password.

This is in safemode and normal mode. No matter what I tried

I couldn't get runonceex to work. The only way I could install

programs unattendly is through a batch file called from cmdlines.txt

And setting auto logon for another account in the admin group

still wouldn't run installs using runonceex.

[bigred]

That would be great jbm.....thanks

[bigred]

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Or could anyone who has XP Home paste their winnt.sif code for me to try?

Any help is appreciated (<--- hopes you feel sorry for him, and offer to help)

[wolfshade]

Why don't u jut skip the password in the answer file and give it an * (that will make it a null password) and work on it from the cmdlines like this :

ECHO Fixing Administrator

net user Administrator imadummy /active:no /passwordchg:no

netuser Administrator /pwnexp:y

This will password built-in admin and disable it just in case

You wil have to dl the "netuser" tool (its here somewhere just do a search) ;"net user" and "netuser" are not the same thing... "net" tool comes with windows "netuser" does not.

After that just add u're account like this:

ECHO Setting local account

net user myusername mypassword /add /active:yes /passwordchg:yes

net localgroup Administrators myusername /add

netuser myusername /pwnexp:y

Replace "myusername" and "mypassword" with u'rs and after that call a *.reg file that contains:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

"DefaultUserName"="myusername"

"DefaultPassword"="mypassword"

"AutoAdminLogon"="1"

And u're account will autologon and work ... i hope for you

And yeah looking at what MCT said u have to work on specs for HOME ... i never had it so the actual names might differ meaning built-ins and groups.

Edited January 19, 2005 by wolfshade

[MCT]

XP Home uses the username "Owner" instead of "Administrator" i believe

[jbm]

I had problems in my runonceex files so it wouldn't work.

And I made some other goofy errors.

Its like I originally thought XP home will not allow the

administrator acount to autologon and will only allow logon

when in safemode.

But I had no trouble setting auto logon for an count in the

administrator group. First I had to remove the lines setting administrator password and autologon from my winnt sif. The in my cmdlines.txt I

call a file to create some accounts.

cmdow @ /HID
@ECHO OFF
net user Jim password /add
net localgroup Administrators Jim /add
REGEDIT /S autologon.reg
EXIT

Here's the autologon.reg file

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
;username administrator causes problems in XP HOME
"DefaultUserName"="jim"
"DefaultPassword"="password"
"AutoAdminLogon"="1"

Next put your runonceex.cmd in cmdlines.txt

Your PC will boot using the account you setup "jim" in the above example

and run you runonceex commands.

Note like MCT says HOME will auto boot with the user name "OWNER"

if you only have one account.

so you may just need to remove your autologon for the administrator.