Autologin software for XP?

[Hemps]

We have +- 20 desktops in our company all running XP sp3

User logs off at the end of the day when they are done.

I want to schedule each workstation to auto login at 5am each morning.
Autostart an eset virus scan.
It's easy to schedule other items to run.

The auto login at a certain time is the bugger though?

And it needs to be free software or solution.

 

[Hemps]

Suppose I could disable "logoff" via group policy.

Then runs the necessary schedules...............after hours.

 

[Zarathustra]

Try this:

http://www.softtreetech.com/24x7/archive/51.htm

 

[bubbatentoe]

Hey Hemps,

the workstation only needs to be switched on (with nobody logged on) for an application to run in the background.
login as local admin on 1 PC and schedule the task for X hour and set it to run-as administrator with local password.
copy that task to all the other w/stations.

I do this on 300+ workstations
1 x daily defrag and 1 x daily virus scan - both run as local admin when the users are logged off.

 

[battletoad]

well, "user controlpasswords2" permits you to set a username and pasword for xp to logon into when the computer starts up. Problem tho is getting your computer to restart.

here's some c++ code that can do it, but you have to run the resultant compiled software as a service. See here.

#include <iostream>
#include <time.h>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
time_t now = time (NULL);
struct tm *tm = localtime(&now);
bool resetSwitch=false, loopError=false;

while ((tm->tm_hour!=5)&&(tm->tm_min!=0)) //loops until 5am
{}

if ((tm->tm_hour==5)&&(tm->tm_min==0)) system('shutdown -r -t 1'); //if 5am, restart.
else loopError=true; //if not 5am, there was an error with the loop. You can then use the state of this boolean value to write an error log, see fstream for details.
return 0;
}

I'd go this way as i'm a bit paranoid when it gets to security (have to make sure research isn't compromised).

EDIT: or...rather bubba's way

 

[HavocXphere]

the workstation only needs to be switched on (with nobody logged on) for an application to run in the background.

This.

Besides, you can't login like you want to without seriously compromising security.

 

[Raiders]

I would advice against an auto logon. It goes against most security best practice.

Rather schedule the task. Most AV software have a schedule function. Corporate AV solution has a console where you can set the policy and task for systems on the network.
http://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN78&impressions=false