[benners]

I am messing around with MSN messenger and have the unattended method along with tweaks sorted but I am unable to find where the information is stored for keeping the display picture and automatically adding the username and login.

I have succesfully installed and added the username and login, plus automatic sign in and remember me on one machine by importing the entries here

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\IdentityCRL

but was unsuccesful on another when using the same installer. I then did a clean install of the succesful PC but this tine the installer did not work, I think the binary values maybe linked to the SID number created at each install.

I have also managed to make the display picture available as an option when I change the picture by copying over the the dat files in the MapFile and UserTile folders but, every installation sees a random picture upon first login until I change it .

If someone has experience with Messenger could you through me a bone even if it confirms my suspicions about the SID at least I can stop trying and sleep

[RogueSpear]

When you install MSN Messenger it does use some sort of hash function to generate a machine ID for use with their servers. I believe this is how you could have two dozen computers all log in at once while all of them are on a private network (ex: 192.168.x.x).

When I make my switchless silent installer for MSN Messenger I always remove any trace of unique identifiers from the registry entries so that they will be generated fresh upon first use. If I didn't do that I think it would perform a hash function and see that the machine ID in the registry wouldn't match the results of the hash.

I'm sure I've described some of this inaccurately, but that should be the basic premise of what's going on. All of this, by the way, is a good thing as it should help prevent someone from spoofing you online if they were ever do to a registry dump of your computer.

[benners]

I have only used it a few times but there is a user number created per user, that is the same and I is generated from the e-mail when an account is first created, a folder is created in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\MSN Messenger and winks, emoticons etc stored for that user and can be used on other machines. it only seems to be the password hash that is slightly different

I have logged in from two network computers with the same email and password and was automatically logged out on one machine as soon as I logged in with another, a popup was displayed informing me of the new login and giving the option to log back in.

Ah well looks like I will have to type the info in after every install, its only 10 secs of a job but we do call them unattended CDs thanks for your help.