[vinicastro]

Just finished my unnatended Server 2008 DVDs - 1 STD and 1 ENT

Everything working fine, but I need to set Blank Administrator password in bove of DVDs

How to do this?

[MrJinje]

Quote

<AdministratorPassword>
<Value><Value/>
<PlainText>true</PlainText>
</AdministratorPassword>

Drop this in your autounattend.xml during the OOBE system Shell Setup component. Inside the <UserAccounts> block.

This post has been edited by MrJinje: 20 November 2009 - 03:26 PM

[Whtnxt]

If you are talking about Built in Administrator account then by default password is already blank.

But if you are trying to set a blank password for a new account with administrator rights then leaving a blank field in autounattend.xml will show an error message and will cause the installation to fail.

instead follow this worked for me....!
---------------------------

Step 1: Insert these Synchronous commands under Path 4 Specialize

net user USERNAMETOINSTALL "" /add
net localgroup Administrators USERNAMETOINSTALL /add
cmd /c net accounts /maxpwage:UNLIMITED

these commands will create a new user with administrator rights with a blank password.
do not leave double quotes they are used to enclose for password field in your case password is blank i.e. ""

Step 2: Create Autologon for newly created account i'll tell you why
xml from my system

<AutoLogon>
<Username>USERNAMETOINSTALL</Username>
<LogonCount>1</LogonCount>
<Enabled>true</Enabled>
</AutoLogon>

As you know to completely automate the OOBE one has supply a Username and Password in the Path 7 OOBE System
so that window can make a new account depending upon the information provided.

There is no way to bypass it AFAIK. and if you leave the field blank or simply remove it from pass 7 OOBe then Windows UI pops up during install and asks for a username and password.

To avoid this a dummy user is created using XML with dummy password so that windows UI does'nt pop up. Windows will carry on the installation as instructed and create a dummy account.

<UserAccounts>
<LocalAccounts>
<LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
<Password>
<Value>dummy</Value>
<PlainText>true</PlainText>
</Password>
<Name>Dummy</Name>
</LocalAccount>
</LocalAccounts>
</UserAccounts>

Off course You dont want a dummy account to show on your logon screen therefore autologon entries for your actual account are made and dummy account is deleted using First logon command line

Step 3: Insert this Synchronous command under Path 7 OOBE System

cmd /c net user Dummy /delete

This command will delete the account created by windows unattended setup leaving only your account with blank password

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

This is the actual process which i have tested without any error and is a success for me. If anyone know a better way to do it then please let me know
Thanks in advance