Autolog 3.0.1.3

Novell Cool Solutions: Cool Tool

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In Brief

Allow for fast configuration of automatic logon to the network and the workstation.

Vitals

Updated:	16 Aug 2006
File Size:	258KB
License:	Free
Download:	/coolsolutions/tools/downloads/autolog.zip
Screenshot:	/coolsolutions/tools/screenshots/autolog.gif
Publisher:	Tommy Mikkelsen

Disclaimer

Please read the note from our friends in legal before using this file.

Details

If you search the Novell Support Site, you'll find a number of different Technical Information Documents (TIDs) that explain how to set up a workstation to automatically log in to a NetWare network.

The big problem is that Novell seems to change the procedures required to set up automatic logins with each release of the Novell Client. Not to mention that the TIDs designed to explain each of these procedures are quite long and difficult to digest.

Because this leads to spending a lot of time whenever you have to configure a workstation to automatically log in, I wrote a small application that can set auto login up on a workstation in a split second.

Here's how it works:
Since I discovered that the Novell Client simply ignores the registry keys it doesn't need, I designed my application to write all the registry keys necessary to enable auto login for each of the different Novell Client versions.

This version of Autolog writes the registry keys for all Novell Client versions from 4.6 to 4.83. This version also checks the desktop operating system to make sure it supports the automatic login functionality.

How to use Autolog:
Simply run the autolog.exe from the workstation in question, fill out the form with the necessary credentials, and click the "Enable AutoLogin" button.

The next time you boot the workstation, you will not be prompted for a username or password but will automatically be logged in to both the workstation and the network.

Warning!
To automatically log in to a Novell network and a Windows workstation, the account password is stored, in clear text, in the workstation's registry. This can be a security issue. To be safe, make sure the workstations you enable for automatic login don't have access to sensitive areas of your network.

What's new:

What's new with version 3.0.1.3:
Jeremy also requested that the current settings of NMAS could be preserved during AutoLog disable.
His request is now how Autolog works.

What's new with version 3.0.1.2: (Version never made it public)
Tony also discovered that I got a key messed up, and changed its keytype.
This bug was also reported by Jeremy Mlazovsky.
This is now fixed.

What's new with version 3.0.1.1:
Lars Adelvard from Danish Service Team found that I didn't disable NMAS when running mode 2.
Tony Pedretti from TransUnion LLC discovered that I cleared some settings like "Clear Current Connections" etc. Autolog now no longer clears those settings.
Autolog made an error, if ServerName was set with a bindery key, this will from now on just be ignored, since DHCP will kick in.

What's new with version 3.0.1:
Enabled support for NMAS. (This is as default installed with Client 4.90, but it breaks Autologon.)
Autolog will now disable NMAS when autolog is enabled, and reenable when autolog is disabled.

What's new with version 3.0.0.4:
Added the /LockWS option to commandline.
Added a new GUI button that will copy GUI to the clipboard, allowing you to paste this into a login script as commandline parameters.
Changed behavior off mode=1, making it switch to MSGina instead of disabling NDS, thereby making it possible to do an NDS logon later.

What's new with version 3.0.0.2:
Changed behavior of Commandline /Disable, so it now accepts parameters as well.
Added Version info to title line off the GUI Window.
Removed req. for the Novell Client32. Autolog is now THE AUTOLOG TOOL, even if you are running without Novell Client32. Added support for ACU !!!!
This can now be used to update an existing client already running with autolog !!!!
This can also be used with ZfD Image or any other Image tool to rollout the client, and set autolog parameters in one go !!!!

What's new with version 2.5:
Did a lot of Code Cleanup
Found a bug that used to be corrected :-( causing Wkstn logon to fail the second time, if the used account had a blank password.
Michael McNally found that you can use the Wkstn's own environment variables and pass them on to Autolog.
Corrected a bug discovered by Greg Sopcak, who found that I didn't set NDS Pararms when doing a M$ logon only

What's new with version 2.1.0.1:
Chris Gibbs discovered that I didn't follow TID 10065981, which caused autolog to fail on the windows part if the Admin held down the Shift button during relogon. Fixed that, so I now follow that TID.

What's New 11-11-02:
Added the possibility to use a blank password.
Added the possibility to uninstall by command line.
Added the possibility to show result window when doing an unattended install.
Added switch to try to guess the username and or context automatically.
Dropped Switch named /WkstnOnly and /AutoWSLog, and replaced those with the mode switch.
Added possibility to just set parameters without doing any logon.
Fixed a bug that caused Autolog to fail if the Mode-switch wasn't touched in GUI-mode, but was left in default setting.
To see the command line switches etc, please see the Usage and FAQ tab.

What's New 9-11-02:
Corrected a bug with Scripting.
Corrected a bug that caused password change to be disabled when autolog was disabled on a workstation.
Added possibility to make a prompted logon to eDirectory, but an automatic logon to the workstation....(Haven't got ZfD...Anyone...)

Updated 9-3-02 to fix a bug that caused autolog to fail on W2K with Client 4.83SP1.

What's New June 2002:
Fixed a bug causing "Run Script"-button not to work
Added support for Windows 9x
Added support for unattended setup. To see command line parameters, run autolog.exe /?

To bypass the autolog tool, hold down the "Shift" button during boot of the workstation.

Updated May 2002 to recognize operating systems that don't support the automatic logon functionality. Have you ever tried to make a workstation running Windows NT, 2000, or XP automatically log in to the network and to itself?

See this article for more information.

Novell Cool Solutions (corporate web communities) are produced by WebWise Solutions. www.webwiseone.com

Reader Comments

• Excellent - I have to set up 50 PC's to Auto Logon and this is going to save me so much time.
• Perfect. Quick and dirty - great for all kinds of uses.
• Sweet tool! I tried making the registry hacks myself, but was unsuccessful and your tool did the trick! :-)
• Wonderful tool, I just wish it could be a little more secure to use on a broader scale.
• very useful
• Perfect
• A very useful tool...
• Excellent tool. If Novell has any sense, they'll buy it from you and incorporate it into ZfD.
• Great for running a series of ZENworks application installs set to force run in series. It saves a lot of time on setup of a new computer from an older computer image file.
• This is great, my lab teachers love you! If only there was a way to incorportate this into zenworks so that we could automatically log into a computer on next boot only or something along those lines.
• Especially the command line capabilities are invaluable. Thanks!
• Excuse me but I can't catch the value of such tool as it eliminates the whole purpose of identification and authentication to the network. Simply because some people are lazy to type in their user ID and password is still not enough to justify in any way fully unsecure access to network resources. Sorry if I'm missing anything here...
• From Tommy: I've been bombarded with e-mails from people using this tool to mass-rool-out to cass-registers, robots, kiosk-pc's, servers running gunevere, not having ZfD, etc. That's what this tool is for.
• Good !
• Fantastic program - could have saved myself LOTS of time if only I'd found it sooner!
• Excellent, very helpfull in our Kiosk environment
• This tool also works with client 3.3x on Windows 9x to auto log a user into the network. Thanks Tommy!
• Excellent - Best Option I have found for the purpose. Nice work. But it is important to keep a copy on your notebook so you can turn it off if you want. Or it delays logging into different tree or container.
• Great tool!!
• Awesome tool. I needed a tool that can autologon for the purpose of automating processes on my windows servers and freeing up licenses on 2 workstations that rarely utilize the network, but can. Thanks again, Tommy
• A nice tool while running Guinevere 2 anti-virus scanner on a desktop with WinNT. At power-failure during weekends it will now re-start and go back to work immediately....
• Exlellent Tool! It helps a lot!
• But why is it only supporting the old clients add support for 4.90 - 4.90SP1
• Awesome tool. Looking forward to the support of 4.9x clients. Thanks, Tommy
• This has helped ease many frustrations, Thank you!
• Also works just fine with Novell Client 4.91.
• Wonderful .. I wrote my own app to do this ahwile ago but I'll just use yours from now on :) One feature request: it would be nice if there was some way to specify as a commandline parameter whether or not to re-enable NMAS when you run AutoLog.exe /U /Disable if NMAS was disabled when entering AutoAdminLogin info
• Perfect
• Could not live without it! Need something like this for Vista as well.
• yahoo - just what I needed
• Great .. works nicely and intuitively
• Great utility. But it really doesnt give you any option if you want to autologon just to NT and a manual NDS logon
• This seems to work very nicely
• Very simple to use and very effective. Just what I needed.
• This program, pardon my high school language, ROCKS! If you want something that does NOT lock up during startup like some other auto login programs, this program is it.
• Excellent!
• this is soo cool.. with love from sys admin ;)
• Great tool. I only found one problem: I wanted my Win2K Terminal Server to login after boot for some special Services to start which need some drive mapings. But after enabling also the terminal-sessions where locked after login and the username of the user i wanted to login to the Server is stored as last succsesfull login. Normaly you should enter username and pwd when logging to a TS session. I´ll try a bit more and search for a way to get along with it., Thanx so far for the time spend into this tool.
• perfect!
• Just what we needed for our University Library public access computers.
• Fan-friggin-tastic. And yes, it does do manual E-dir and auto workstation!
• Great tool!! But I am having a problem with the new novell client 4.90 for xp. The username field is cleared everytime i reboot so it isn't login in. It worked nice with all previous novell client but i hope it can be fixed somehow with 4.90 the client
• Thank God!!!!
• Works perfectly!!
• This is perfect for remote locations and when more users use one pc (with out NDS connecction)