I'm deploying a Windows XP system with WinPE 2.0 And I use a WDS server for that.

I do a unattended installation of XP (NOT A IMAGE), the only problem is in RIS the setup get the MACHINENAME from AD but with WDS it doesn't.
Now am I looking for a way to get my machine name from AD before is starts installing my OS. Is there a way to do this or is this impossible with WDS?

A few years ago I wrote a small script that assigns the Computername by checking the MAC address. Would that be of any help to you?

Can i use it in WINPE? (just to get the machine name in a variable).

I don't see why not

Can you post the script/ files so i can see if it works or not?

also interested

I used these two lines in an old script that I used mac’s as computer names. I used a tool called compname.exe. I copy it to %windir%/system32 dir at the start of my bat file. Not sure if this helps or not.

Try this tool.

http://mystuff.clarke.co.nz/MyStuff/Default.asp

After trying to llok on alot of website I still don't know het to get my MACHINENAME out of AD. My WDS server boot a winpe (its a very clean one) My winpe formats the drive, and copy i386 folder from server to local disk. then start winxp setup with a sif file. in my sif file i have %MACHINENAME% as var. But %machinename% is at this moment * cause i putted "%machinename% = *" in the start of my script.

What i want is a script dat read in my active directory and give me the right computer name for the computer i want to install. I will compare the MAC adress or GUID from the computer and the compûtername in AD. Is this possible? If yes can you point me in de right directions or maybe better give me with a script.

I hope someone can helps me...