Disable an Active Directory account on a schedule

Every AD Admin knows this thing. Request 891237843 ->Please disable the User XY on next saturday at 12 pm. Its weekend so don´t waste your time with this things... Here is a guide for creating a schedule task that do this job for you!

First create a batch file like this:

dsmod user "CN=Bad Person,OU=Users,DC=companyX,DC=com" -disabled yes

You have to know the users DN. You can find it in Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) in the Users Properties. In the properties select the tab "Attribute Editor" tab and go to  "distinguishedName". Double click on it and copy the value. Replace my sample DN CN=Bad Person,OU=Users,DC=companyX,DC=com in the script with your users DN and save it.

On your DC or on a admin workstation that have DSMOD installed, create a schedule task that run the created batch file.

One example for creating a Schedule Task on Windows Server 2008 R2:
Open the "Task Scheduler" that is located in "Administrative Tools". Right-click "Task Scheduler Libary" and select "Create Task...".

Task Settings:
-General tab
Select "Run whether user is logged on or not"
-Triggers tab
Click on "New..", select "On a schedule" and set the time you want to disable the user.
-Actions tab
Click on "New..", select "Start a program" and "Browse" to your created batch file.

Confirm all by clicking "OK" and entering your credentials or credentials from a task user.

Note: The account that run the task need the required rights to disable a User account.

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Windows 7: How to Remove Games link from Start Menu with Group Policy

- Create a new GPO and link it under the OU that the user is located.

- Go to User Configuration, Policies, Administrative Templates, Start Menu and Taskbar and enable "Remove Games link from Start Menu".

...

-  You can also apply the following to prevent the user from acces and hide the A, B , C and D drive from my Computer.

- Go to User Configuration, Policies, Administrative Templates, Windows Components/Windows Explorer. Now enable "Hide these specified drives in My Computer" and Restrict A, B, C and D drives only. Also enable "Prevent access to drives from My Computer" and Restrict A, B, C and D drives only.


Note:
If the user is a administrator the policy will not be set.

Windows 8: Unattend Installation using WDS

---Setup---
 
- Download the ISO file for Windows 8 from the Microsoft Homepage.

- Extract the "Install.wim" and "boot.wim" with 7zip or another tool. The WIM files are located in the "sources" folder.

- Rename the Install.wim i.e. to Win8.ENT.EN and add it to your WDS Server.
Win8 = Windows 8
ENT=Enterprise
EN=English

- Add the boot.wim as boot image also to your server.

- On your server go to "\RemoteInstall\Images\Basic Images\" and create a folder that have the same name that your image have "Win8.ENT.EN".

- In the folder "Win8.ENT.EN" created a folder named "Unattend".

- Open Notepad and copy in the follwoing text and save it as ImageUnattend.xml in the "Unattend" folder. You have to change the domain join ,time zone and locale settings.

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <ComputerName>*</ComputerName>
            <TimeZone>W. Europe Standard Time</TimeZone>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-UnattendedJoin" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <Identification>
                <Credentials>
                    <Domain>YOURdomain.com</Domain>
                    <Password>PW678231bn!8</Password>
                    <Username>domainjoin</Username>
                </Credentials>
                <JoinDomain>YOURdomain.com</JoinDomain>
            </Identification>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <InputLocale>de-de</InputLocale>
            <UILanguage>de-de</UILanguage>
            <UserLocale>de-de</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <OOBE>
                <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
                <NetworkLocation>Work</NetworkLocation>
                <ProtectYourPC>1</ProtectYourPC>
            </OOBE>
            <Themes>
                <DefaultThemesOff>true</DefaultThemesOff>
            </Themes>
            <UserAccounts>
                <AdministratorPassword>
                    <Value>AdminPW123!</Value>
                    <PlainText>true</PlainText>
                </AdministratorPassword>
                <LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Password>
                            <Value>AdminPW123!</Value>
                            <PlainText>true</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <Description>Admin Account</Description>
                        <DisplayName>Admin</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Name>admin</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>
            </UserAccounts>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:d:/install.wim#Windows 8 Enterprise" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

- The image will be automatically linked to your xml file.

- For HDD disk configuration settings you have to add a second xml. Save the following XML to "\RemoteInstall\WdsClientUnattend" and name it Unattend64.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <DiskConfiguration>
                <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
                <Disk wcm:action="add">
                    <CreatePartitions>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                            <Extend>true</Extend>
                        </CreatePartition>
                    </CreatePartitions>
                    <ModifyPartitions>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Active>true</Active>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>System</Label>
                            <Letter>C</Letter>
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                </Disk>
            </DiskConfiguration>
            <WindowsDeploymentServices>
                <Login>
                    <Credentials>
                        <Domain></Domain>
                        <Username></Username>
                        <Password></Password>
                    </Credentials>
                </Login>
                <ImageSelection>
                    <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
                    <InstallImage>
                        <ImageName></ImageName>
                        <ImageGroup></ImageGroup>
                        <FileName></FileName>
                    </InstallImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                </ImageSelection>
            </WindowsDeploymentServices>
        </component>
    </settings>
</unattend>

- After this open the WDS console go to the "Client" tab, select "Enable unattended installation" and choose your created xml file for "ia64 architecture" and "x64 architecture". For ia64 change the XML.

- The user who start the installation, have to enter his credentials and to choose the uploaded Windows 8 image. You can also point to an image and provide the credentials in the XML.


---Settings that will be applied----

Admin Account => PW = AdminPW123!, Name = admin 
LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Password>
                            <Value>AdminPW123!</Value>
                            <PlainText>true</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <Description>Local Admin</Description>
                        <DisplayName>Admin</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Name>admin</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
</LocalAccounts>

Computer name => Random
<ComputerName>*</ComputerName> 
For using the prestaged computer object in Active Directory use the following
<ComputerName>%machinename%</ComputerName>

Locale/Language => Germany for other locations see Windows Locale Codes
<InputLocale>de-de</InputLocale>
<UILanguage>de-de</UILanguage>
<UserLocale>de-de</UserLocale>


---Notes---

You can created your own XML with encrypted user passwords etc. using Windows ADK

WDS: WDS can not start Error 0x2740

Error message:
An error occurred while trying to start the Windows Deployment Services server.

 Error Information: 0x2740

This error could be occured because your site is using a DC without a GC role.

You can solve the issue by:

Make your local DC to a GC.
or
Pointing to your local DC and to a GC.
-Open the WDS console and right-click on the servername.
-Select properties and choose the advanced tab.
-Type in your local DC and a GC that can be reached from the local site.