jiiim

Has anyone got any tips or trix on how to tell a user that his/hers computer is beeing installed/configured?
When using the "modify configuration" job there's a nice splash screen presented on top of the ctrl+alt+delete window which prevents users from logging in. Does anyone know what file/files generates this nice thing?

If someone's got any ideas on this one I'd be super glad to hear them.

__________________
Thanks,

Jim

jdean

I personally don't know of any VB scripting (or powershell) function to do this but one may exist. I'm guessing Altiris has some code calling an API.

KSweet does some programming and may know.

__________________
IT Factotum * Altiris Addict * Wise Monger * VBScript Zealot

Jereme Dean
Orange County, CA
jdean33442@gmail.com

Rickard

Hi Jim,
You can create a custom login GINA using somthing like this.
Just point your registry to use your custom gina and when you are done configuring point back to the original msgina and reboot.

Regards

jiiim

Excellent suggestion! Logon window now looks like this during configuration of the computer.
When configuration is finished it's switched back to the original gina.

Thanks!

__________________
Thanks,

Jim

SLam

Can you give me a step-by-step of what you did? I would also like to do something like this for our environment. Thanks.

jiiim

Download Resource Hacker.

1. Create a copy of C:\windows\system32\msgina.dll and open the copied msgina.dll with Resource Hacker.
2. Figure out what bitmaps you want to change under the "Bitmap" section. Right click the green flower symbol and save the bitmap. Edit in Photoshop and then replace the existing one with the new one.
3. In the "Dialog" section edit the "1400" entry, mine looks like this:
   
   Code:

   1400 DIALOGEX 8, 31, 274, 126
   STYLE DS_FIXEDSYS | DS_MODALFRAME | WS_POPUP | WS_VISIBLE | WS_CAPTION
   CAPTION "Configuring computer..."
   LANGUAGE LANG_ENGLISH, SUBLANG_ENGLISH_US
   FONT 8, "MS Shell Dlg"
   {
      CONTROL "This computer is beeing configured, please stand by...", 2420, STATIC, SS_LEFT | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_GROUP, 7, 98, 225, 16 
      CONTROL "Computer Locked", 2419, BUTTON, BS_GROUPBOX | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE, 0, 0, 273, 68 
      CONTROL "This computer is in use and has been locked.", 1752, STATIC, SS_LEFT | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_GROUP, 37, 7, 230, 8 
      CONTROL "Text", 1902, STATIC, SS_LEFT | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_GROUP, 37, 21, 230, 26 
      CONTROL 115, 2403, STATIC, SS_ICON | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE, 7, 5, 20, 20 
   }

To change the ginadll in windows edit this value HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Ginadll = yourgina.dll

I do this with cmdlines.txt, this way the computer has the "Configuring computer Gina" right after the minisetup is finished.

To remove the modified ginadll I remove the value HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Ginadll and reboot the machine. When it's rebooted the normal login window is back.

__________________
Thanks,

Jim

Nick

__________________
Scire potentia est (knowledge is power)

pretenda

This might be a really long shot, but does anyone have an alternative to this for vista? gina has broken up with windows and windows has replaced her with younger, better looking sister ..

We are looking at upgrading some of our machines to vista and that msgina.dll hack was awesome for our xp pcs.

Thanks in advance.

gerardsweeney

I know this is an old discussion, but for my deployment, I've written a small(ish) script which changes the logon wallpaper to a red background with this sort of layout:

Computer name: wsblah
Make/Model : blah
Serial number : blah
Operating System: blah




Do not attempt to use this computer
(custom message)


The script is called with a parameter $reason. If that exists, then it's a red background and the custom message. If it isn't then the background is blue, and the "do not attempt... " bit is our company name.

I can post the script somewhere, so long as nobody laughs too much at the decidedly dodgy coding!!

Robert Lundsten

Hey gerardsweeney!

The script sounds interesting. I would love to get a hold of it

Thanks!

__________________
Robert Lundsten
Altiris Specialist

Asterio AB, Sweden
www.asterio.se

gerardsweeney

Hi, Robert..

I have emailed you the au3 file. Try not to laugh too hard!!

Gerard

shotgn22

I've now combined this into my jobs templates that I use.

Now it locks the keyboard and mouse, reboots, displays this as the updates are taking place, unlocks the keyboard and mouse once finished, then reboots.

Thanks for this.

Setral

I'd be interested in seeing this script or a similar one. Would make it easier in the few cases where we reimage a PC at the desk so the user knows when the PC is available.

d0csys

How are you guys locking the keyboard/mouse while at the CTRL+ALT+DEL screen?

thanks

gerardsweeney

I've not tried it, but it appears that the edited MSGINA file is configured to ignore the CTRL ATL DEL input.

You then substitute the registry back to using the correct MSGINA.DLL file once it has completed.


Cheers,
Gerard

shotgn22

Yes, I have an MSGINA file I edited and renamed. I just have that copied over to the machine and then point the registry to that file when I want to change the CTRL-ALT-DEL lingo to "Configuring Computer." Then after all the changes are done, switch it back to the original.

Here is for the keyboard and mouse.

All you have to do is disable the kbdclass and mouclass services in the registry. Here is the code I use to do that


CODE
REM Disable Keyboard and Mouse
SET SERVICES=HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
REG ADD %SERVICES%\kbdclass /v Start /t REG_DWORD /d 4 /f
REG ADD %SERVICES%\mouclass /v Start /t REG_DWORD /d 4 /f


and to reenable them


CODE
SET KEY=HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \RunOnceEx
ECHO Setup Registry Key to unlock mouse after installs are done
REG ADD %KEY%\996 /VE /D "Unlocking Mouse" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\996 /V 1 /D "REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\mouclass /v Start /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f" /f

ECHO Setup Registry Key to unlock keyboard after software installs are done
REG ADD %KEY%\997 /VE /D "Unlocking Keyboard" /f
REG ADD %KEY%\997 /V 1 /D "REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\kbdclass /v Start /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f" /f

d0csys

shotgn22,

Thanks for that code i am going to make good use of it.

I am having an issue though.

I am attempting to do the following.

1. copy a new msgina.dll to c:\msgina.dll (modified to my taste)

2. I then ran the following script in WINPE as i want the new msgina.dll to load as soon as the imaged PC boots up and gets to configuring computer etc.

The weard part is that the value exists in the registry but the "new" msgina.dll does not work even after sebsequential reboots.

If i import the following key into the registry however it works

This is weard as it's in the registry.

Anyone have the same problem?

How are you guys doing it in WinPE?

Thanks for the help in advanced.

shotgn22

Yes, the msgina.dll does not play well when trying to overwrite.

I wound copying a file into my builds called msgina2.dll that was created with reshacker to configure the wording I wanted.

The keyboard/mouse lock script would then run.

Then I would change HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"GinaDLL"="C:\\msgina.dll" in the script to point to msgina2.dll prior to rebooting.

Then just change it back when running the unlock script.

d0csys

shotgn22,

Thanks for the help.
I think that maybe i wasn't clear.

I have over 100 different images at 100 different locations.

These .IMG files don't have this new msgina.dll file staged that i am attempting to load so what i would like to do is copy the modified msgina.dll to C:\msgina.dll using WINPE and then add the registry key into the image using WINPE so that the new msgina.dll is read as soon as Altiris boots the PC to perform the configuring computer task (right before it's controlable from the Altiris console and before any additional scripts are run)

Doing this after communication is established with the Altiris Console after imaging would defeat its purpose in my environment.

I just don't understand because i know that my modified msgina.dll file is a good working file as i've tested it by doing the process manually and using the command i mentioned above WINPE does indeed load the registry key into the registry.

The key is there but for some odd reason is not being read properly....

Advice is appreciated on how to get this to work.

PS: I am not overwriting the existing non altered microsoft msgina.dll in C:\windows\system32. I am staging a modified copy under C:\

Thanks guys

d0csys

Modifying the code as follows solved my problem.

Thanks for the help