Change the administrator password for windows 2003 on deployment

[gheywood]

Hello,

I have a Windows 2003 Server Standard Edition template which I would like a department to be able to rollout. It should have their own administrator password. What do I need to do to their customization script to allow them to have a different password from the password stored on the image?

We are running vSphere U1.

[vmroyale]

Hello.

If you are using the Customization Specifications Manager, just duplicate an existing specification and then edit it to use the different password.

Good Luck!

[gheywood]

Thanks. That is what I was expecting the script to do, but it doesn't.

In fact, if I tick the box to logon as administrator, it will attempt to logon, but fail because the password I am supplying is different from the password in the template... A bit of a pain..

[MattG]

From memory, couldn't you just leave it blank and allow it to prompt the user during deployment?

-MattG

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[gheywood]

Thanks, but a blank password makes no difference. It doesn't prompt me, and it won't let me logon with a blank password.

I am no sysprep expert, but is there any way to verify if an attempt was made to change the password?

[MattG]

Could it be that you entered the pwd wrong in the customization? Try something simple like abc123 and see what happens.

-MattG

[gheywood]

No, I know what the password is on the template, and the customization script. It is always the password on the original template that works. Bizarre since other customization stuff seems to work..

I did try several passwords in the customization script too, include one which is only character different from the template in the password (just to make sure that it isn't some complexity rule tripping me up).

[Kahonu84]

Aloha -

Is there a way to force a password change on next login???? When you hand out a VM, tell the party what the current temp. password is and what you want them to change it to.

Mahalo, Bill

[gheywood]

I tried adding this as a command during the script, but still no joy (it was a complex password though):

"net user Administrator temppass"

[gheywood]

Think I found the answer.

Thanks Microsoft

"This problem is caused by the administrator password on the master system being nonblank."

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/200607/en-us