Domain accounts - logon

[Stevehewitt]

Hi Guys,

Just a mini-complaint regarding the new UI.

On a domain, I'm really suprised to see user accounts still having a flower or football image for logon. It's a XP Home style logon which to be honest looks very unprofessional.

Does anyone know how to get to a more XP style logon rather than the nasty home style UI for logon?

Cheers,




Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[linney]

Not too promising but you can read about it anyway. I think this change was made to enable Fast User Switching on a Domain. At least you can change the icon to some different photo.

Change the way users log on.

http://shellrevealed.com/forums/thread/5461.aspx

See what tweaks develop once Vista has been around for a while.

 

[Stevehewitt]

Pah - that's really annoying!

Looks great everywhere other than the logon screen that looks like it's been ripped straight from the home edition of XP!

Cheers,




Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[Stevehewitt]

When I initally posted it was a Ultimate edition version that I had on a Win2k3 Native domain with the latest SP's etc on the DC's and could only see the option to logon with the home user UI. (Although I don't think there were any images other than a default blue pool for the user icon)

I've recently deployed our first machine into the enterprise with Vista Business installed (laptop) and whilst running great seem to have the same logon.

Can you explain how you changed the logon type?

Thanks,




Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[phillid2]

In XP it is in Control Panel, User Accounts, and you can change how users log on. Fast-switching has to be disabled if you synchronzie files for off-line access (Pro only)

Don Phillips

http://worthingtonengineering.com

 

[Stevehewitt]

Thanks - but I'm refering to Vista.
Anyone know how? (Mainly mizzivy! ;-))

Cheers,




Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[phillid2]

Sorry, I knew that, I have not seen Vista yet and I was thinking this functionailty would be in the same place in Vista as it is in XP.

Don Phillips

http://worthingtonengineering.com

 

[markdmac]

I have Vista Ultimate and I get the same thing. I've changed my picture and have the nice bonzi tree, but still get that stupid flower when I connect via RDP to my machine.

Something VERY IMPORTANT to make note of. You do NOT want Vista Business on a laptop. Vista business deployments require a license server. The licese server can either be a Vista workstation OR Longhorn Server. So for now, it has to be a Vista workstation since Longhorn is not RTM yet.

The Vista Business workstations will periodically have to check in with that license server. If they can't contact it the machines flat line and become unusable. This is part of the latest anti-piracy protection. If a bunch of CD-Keys get over activated, Microsoft is notified that a customer's keys have been stolen, all the keys are revoked and new ones issued to the customer.

Vista Ultimate only needs to activate one time. Software Assurance customers that purchase Vista Business are being given 10% of their licenses as Ultimate for this reason. A laptop that actually goes out on the road could eventually be out of contact with the corporate server long enough to die. Don't do this to yourself!

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[Stevehewitt]

Mark,

To my knowledge that is incorrect.

Microsoft have provided three ways to activate volume licenced products.

MAK Proxy
MAK Independant
KMS

The only type of activation that will continually check (every 180 days) with the activation server (which is internal) is the KMS method.

You can chose what method to use per machine, e.g. each system can be used in a single network.

There is no difference in activation between Vista edition.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/plan/volact1.mspx

Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[markdmac]

You may be right Steve, but I am going by what I was told internally at Microsoft by one of our Technical Specialists.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[Stevehewitt]

Same here! ;-)

Although from previous experiences with contacting MS regarding Vista, i'm not suprised there are different messages.

(According to the MS AskPartner line Vista wasn't even released yet. As I had my volume licenced copy installed on my desktop... [/sigh]!)




Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[markdmac]

I'll try to confirm with the product group and report back. It is possible that the information I was given applied only to internal builds (I am an MS employee).

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

 

[u080570]

I have VISTA Business on my laptop - installed a couple days after we could download from MSDN....I havent had any licensing issues yet - please let us know what you find out with regards to this.....I can't believe Microsoft would do something like this and not print it in BIG letters somewhere....there are tons of laptop users in the business world.....

 

[mmv]

The keyword is how you activate you version of Vista.
For the Home editions, Basic, Premium or Ultimate, you need to Activate your product against Microsoft once. Many of these machines will probably be loaded by the manufacturer and the license is tied to the hardware.

For the Business and Enterprise Editions you can use a Key Management Server, KMS, which will hold the activation against Microsoft for all the machines in the network, be it Laptops or Desktops. These machines has to "see" the KMS server once every 6 months to activate.

If you have a small amount of machines (below 25) or you have machines that will never connect to the corporate network, you can use Multiple Activation Keys, MAK keys. These keys needs to activate individually against Microsoft only once.

Check out

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/resources/vol/default.mspx

 

[markdmac]

mmv, thank you for the clarification.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript