Problem with Fast Logon Optimization and AutoAdminLogon

[ray.diack]

Hi there

We use RIS to automate deployment of XP workstations. In cmdlines.txt,
we have a command to add a "install" domain user into the local
Administrators group, and to merge an "autologon.reg" reg file into the
registry. This reg file contains all the keys and values necessary to
perform an AutoAdminLogon, using the install user. This user then logs
on automatically, and a batch file that is specified in the GUIRunOnce
section of the RIS .sif file kicks off and does various things to
customize the machine.

Our problem is that sometimes the autoadminlogon fails. It tries to
log in automatically, but for some reason selects the wrong domain (it
selects the local machine as the domain) and therefore fails to log in
as the install user is a domain user, so it should be selecting the
domain to log in to.

I suspect that it's failing because of XP's fast logon optimization
feature - that the network hasn't been initialized yet when it tries to
log in to the domain. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q305293/).
I've disabled the feature using the same reg file that I use for the
autoadminlogon, and it's also disabled in group policy, but it seems
these settings would only take effect at the following startup (ie the
changes aren't taking effect soon enough). What's frustrating is that
sometimes the autoadminlogon works like a charm, and other times not.
The machines I'm testing on are all using identical hardware, and i'm
using the same RIS image for all of them.

Here's my autoadminlogon reg file contents:-

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"SyncForegroundPolicy"=dword:00000001
"DisableCAD"=dword:00000001
"AutoAdminLogon" = "1"
"DefaultPassword" = "passwordhere"
"DefaultDomainName" = "DOMAINHERE"
"DefaultUserName" = "install"
"AltDefaultDomainName" = "DOMAINHERE"
"AltDefaultUserName" = "install"
"CachePrimaryDomain" = "DOMAINHERE"
"DontDisplayLastUserName" = "0"

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Ray

 

[ray.diack]

I found an appropriate workaround. I added a net user command into
cmdlines.txt to create a local user with the same username and password
as the "install" domain user. In this way, it "tricks" Windows into
allowing the local user to authenticate successfully to shares that the
domain install user has access to. In this way, it doesn't matter if
the autoadminlogon fails sometimes, as it will successfully logon using
the local user anyway if it picks the local machine as the domain.

At the end of my install scripts i've got another net user /delete to
delete the local user right before it reboots the machine.

Hope this helps someone somewhere having the same problem ;-)

-Ray