Case difference between NT and XP when using GetUserName API

[Guest]

As part of a migration from NT to XP for 5000+ PCs, I have come across an issue where the case returned by XP for the logged on user is different to under NT.
If you use the username property of the wscript.network object or use the GetUsername API the case is returned as the samAccountName with the case preserved on NT but on XP the username is returned exactly as it was entered at the login screen.
That is to say, if the user logs into XP by typing in USERx for the username then WSH and the API call will return USERx whereas NT returns UserX(as it appears in the samAccountName).
This is causing issues for some applications which are attempting to authenticate to Unix hosts where the username is case-sensitive.
Can anybody:
1) Explain why this occurs
2) Provide a solution that will make these calls return the samAccountName under XP

 

[Roger Abell]

After you have the loginname, use such as Wmi to obtain
the samName property of the user object. Why is it so?
Who knows, but the samName is the downlevel name, not
the primary name in uplevel Windows versions and as far
as I know NetBIOS is not case sensitive so I would guess
these differences were not considered worth the overhead.

--
Roger Abell
Microsoft MVP (Windows Server System: Security)
MCSE (W2k3,W2k,Nt4) MCDBA

As part of a migration from NT to XP for 5000+ PCs, I have come across an

issue where the case returned by XP for the logged on user is different to
under NT.

If you use the username property of the wscript.network object or use the

GetUsername API the case is returned as the samAccountName with the case
preserved on NT but on XP the username is returned exactly as it was entered
at the login screen.

That is to say, if the user logs into XP by typing in USERx for the

username then WSH and the API call will return USERx whereas NT returns
UserX(as it appears in the samAccountName).

This is causing issues for some applications which are attempting to

authenticate to Unix hosts where the username is case-sensitive.

 

[Guest]

The problem is that it is not my code that is making the calls, it is third party applications, ie compiled code, and therefore I cannot do the conversion because it would require altering the vendors code. So the question is, is there any configuration we can do before running the application to alter the output of these calls, or do we have to tell the customer that they need to delete the username from the login screen and enter it in the correct case themselves?