New to IT Scripting, question here

[techno81]

Hey everyone, just joined the board here and I have a quick question. My company uses AutoIT for scripting and deployment on multiple machines (a few hundred approx). I have read the forums and did find a

snippet of code that appears to pertain to my question. The code is below;

$OldUser = "Guest" $NewUser = "Guestrenamed"

$oUser = ObjGet("WinNT://" & @ComputerName & "/" & $OldUser & ",user")

$oComputer = ObjGet("WinNT://" & @ComputerName) $oNewUser = $oComputer.MoveHere($oUser.ADsPath, $NewUser)

I am trying to find a script that will allow me to rename the admin and guest accounts on about 225 computers by just changing the name in the script and applying it to all 225 computers, rather than doing so

manually. I am new to AutoIt and scripting in general, but I believe the code above may be what I am looking for. My question is, do I just run the script above after saving it? If editing is necessary what parts would I

need to edit. I assume it goes by computer name. So, say for instance my computer name was DXC2245, where would I put that into the code? Also, will that snippet of code work for what I want? Thank you in

advance.

[water]

Welcome to AutoIt and the forum!

In short:

Replace @ComputerName with the name of the computer you want to connect to (e.g. "DXC2245").

You need to implement some error checks to make sure the script runs successfully. That means check the error macro @error and define a COM error handler to get as much error information as possbible.

[techno81]

Hi water, ty for the response. I understand now that I need to replace @ComputerName with the computer I am trying to connect to, but what if I want to deploy this change to 225 computers? Do I have to put all 225 computer names in that spot, or is there a command/parameter etc. that will allow me to target all computers on the domain? I notice it says WinNT and the computers where I work all run Win XP Pro, so would I need to change that? Sorry, very new to this.

[water]

It depends.

Where do you have the 225 computer names stored right now? Active Directory, a text file ..?

You don't have to change "WinNT://" to XP, it's the provider name.

Edited May 24, 2012 by water

[Mechaflash]

New to scripting... and being a computer/network admin?

[techno81]

New to scripting... and being a computer/network admin?

I am not the admin, I help our sys admin with some tasks when he gets bogged down. I could rename them all manually, but I am trying to learn how to do this via script to make it easier on myself for the future.

[techno81]

It depends.

Where do you have the 225 computer names stored right now? Active Directory, a text file ..?

You don't have to change "WinNT://" to XP, it's the provider name.

Active directory.

[kylomas]

techno81,

Before you make a carreer changing mistake, seek advice from these people

My company uses AutoIT for scripting and deployment on multiple machines

kylomas

[water]

Then it's easy.

You could use my Active Directory UDF (for download please see my signature) to retrieve a list of computers and store it in an array. Then loop through the array and do the rename job.

Make sure to handle errors as I described above.

[Mechaflash]

Maybe the by Water? Never used it so not sure of its capabilities.

Edit:

This post is all wet.

Edited May 24, 2012 by mechaflash213

[techno81]

techno81,

Before you make a carreer changing mistake, seek advice from these people

kylomas

If by these people, you mean AutoIT forum posters, that is why I am asking this forum .

[kylomas]

techno81,

I am quoting you! Your question is alarming at several levels so am offering friendly advice.

Good Luck,

kylomas

[techno81]

techno81,

I am quoting you! Your question is alarming at several levels so am offering friendly advice.

Good Luck,

kylomas

Not sure how it is alarming. I work for a business, where I have ran scripts for my colleague (system Admin that he wrote) to essentially deploy updates to a group of machines. I am just wanting to be able to change the names of the admin accounts and guest accounts for auditing purposes. Instead of administrator and guest, I am trying to find a script that will allow me to rename all 225 machines via deployment so I do not have to do it manually. Sorry.

[Mechaflash]

I think he meant talk with your admins/team members etc.

[kylomas]

techno81,

No need to apologize, your origional post asked questions that lead me to believe that you wanted a mechanism for bulk changes without knowing the infrastructure, including any change management in place. I hope I am mistaken and you simply need programming direction.

Good Luck,

kylomas

[Reg2Post]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816109 for 2K3 GPO. If you are 2K8 or higher you should be able to find examples of making a GP easily.

Could also check pspasswd from sysinternals.

You asked if you can just run the script. You really do not have an example of one. What you posted it not enough to compile.

[BrewManNH]

if you use group policy in Active Directory, you can disable the guest accounts and change the Administrator account names from a group policy, it's 2 settings and will happen every time the computer reboots, if it hasn't been done already.

[techno81]

techno81,

No need to apologize, your origional post asked questions that lead me to believe that you wanted a mechanism for bulk changes without knowing the infrastructure, including any change management in place. I hope I am mistaken and you simply need programming direction.

Good Luck,

kylomas

Hey Kylomas, no I totally understand and thanks for looking out. As for me, we do have a system we use for change requests involving big updates. My system admin is the one who actually wants me to do this so I got instructions from him. I simply just needed direction on how programmatically I could conjure a script to change multiple admin/guest accounts at once. I am familiar with the infrastructure, and have a total understanding of what I can and cannot do. This is just being done to mitigate the workload my system admin already has. I guess you can call it a kind gesture as I could just tell him no way that is your job (without being fired as he is not who I report to) but I want to learn and doing different work at different times is best way to do so.

[techno81]

if you use group policy in Active Directory, you can disable the guest accounts and change the Administrator account names from a group policy, it's 2 settings and will happen every time the computer reboots, if it hasn't been done already.

Brewman, our guests accounts are disabled and we do use group policy with active directory. What two settings are you referring to please?

[water]

I think the two settings as described by Reg2Post in post #16.