Unattended installation & local accounts

[Guest]

I'm testing deploying Vista unattended via WDS and making the answer file
with Windows SIM. Everything has been going well execpt that i can't find a
component to not prompt to create a local account. Part of my answer file has
it auto join to our domain and the enable Administrator account. End-users
will be logging into the domain so I have no need or desire to create any
local accounts.

Is there a way around this or does Vista require a local account to be
created?

Thanks!

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 12:38:02 -0800, tkmlee

I'm testing deploying Vista unattended via WDS and making the answer file
with Windows SIM.

Join the club! See...

http://cquirke.spaces.live.com

Everything has been going well execpt that i can't find a
component to not prompt to create a local account.

Yep, that's a pain that is. What I do is:
- create an account called KILLTHIS!!
- delete the KILLTHIS!! account from Control Panel, Users etc.
- say Yes to also delete all profile info for that account
- use Regedit to search for KILLTHIS!! and replace with user name

The Regedit phase is required because Vista will use that new account
name as the "registered owner" name. There are only about two
settings to change via Regedit if you do this before anything else.

Part of my answer file has it auto join to our domain and the enable
Administrator account.

OK; I don't do domains, so can't help you there. Otherwise, AFAIK
there's an answer file setting that suppresses the account prompt, but
only by automating the creation of a new account.

However, I may have accidentally found a way as a side-effect of
something else. I wanted to retain device drivers so as to simplify
imaging to similar hardware, and there's an answer file setting for
that (involves retention of PnP stuff). When I used this answer file
via Sysprep (there's CLI syntax to do this) I didn't get prompted to
create a new account.

The post-Sysprep pattern is similar to what you see in XP after a
"repair" install, and each has a bug:
- XP allows creation new account with same name as existing
- Vista won't let you skip this step, whereas XP can

Is there a way around this or does Vista require a local account to be
created?

Perhaps for your purposes, you could use an answer file to automate
the creation of an account. I'd expect there has to be at least one
local account (e.g. for when not connected to domain), and if you
aren't using it, you can set a fierce password and leave the settings
as default (whereas I'd want to relocate shell folders etc.)

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Saws are too hard to use.
Be easier to use!

 

[Guest]

I figured out a way to get around it if anyone is interested...

What i do is have the answer file create a local account. Then i used the
FirstLogonCommands to do a "net user tempaccount /delete" to remove that
account. works like a charm

thanks!

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 13:03:00 -0800, tkmlee

I figured out a way to get around it if anyone is interested...

What i do is have the answer file create a local account. Then i used the
FirstLogonCommands to do a "net user tempaccount /delete" to remove that
account. works like a charm

Ah, thanks for that - I've marked your post as a "keeper"

--------------- ---- --- -- - - - -

Saws are too hard to use.
Be easier to use!