Disabling the remote shutdown command.

[IT_Man_Dan]

Morning,

Does anyone know of a quick way to disable the ability to shutdown a pc remotely using the command line in Windows XP?

One of the little sods has apparently figured out how to do it and have been shutting down their classmates workstations.

[Geoff]

You can disable this in the Local/Domain Security Policy.

Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment -> Shutdown the System.

[IT_Man_Dan]

Thanks,

Will this mean that they can't shutdown the pc's at all or just remotely using the shutdown script?

I still want them to be able to shut their own pc's down.

[projector1]

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true

Force shutdown from a remote system is what you probably need to look at, the only groups that should be able to carry this out is administrators.
If the kids are able to remotely shutdown then you may need to find out if they have got access to the admin password!

[Oops_my_bad]

Indeed... something is very wrong somewhere if they can shut down a PC remotely

[IT_Man_Dan]

Ok after quizzing a couple of the suspects they've given in and admited that they watched one of the members of staff type in the local administrator password...

Great, I now have to go round every single pc and change the local password... Fun!!

Thanks for your help on the shutdown problem.

[Geoff]

Run the following as a machine startup script:

net user Administrator newpassword

[IT_Man_Dan]

Sorry, how exactly do I do that? If I wanted the new password to be enter I'd just simply put

net user Administrator enter

is that correct?

[DSapseid]

Sorry, how exactly do I do that? If I wanted the new password to be enter I'd just simply put

net user Administrator enter

is that correct?

yep

[Geoff]

1. Create\edit a GPO that applies to all the machines you want to reset the local admin password on.
2. Open it up and go to Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Scripts -> Startup.
3. the command is 'net'
4. the parameters are 'user Administrator whateverpasswordyouwant'
5. The machines local admin password will reset on next boot.

[IT_Man_Dan]

Thanks for the info I'll put that into the login script :-)

On a slightly different note, do you know how I can make the login script not bring up a dialog box when running so that the students can't see it or close it?

Thanks

[DSapseid]

Ok after quizzing a couple of the suspects they've given in and admited that they watched one of the members of staff type in the local administrator password...

Why do the staff even have the local admin password?

[Geoff]

On a slightly different note, do you know how I can make the login script not bring up a dialog box when running so that the students can't see it or close it?

Your login script is doing something strange to cause that. By default login scripts run slient/minimized. Debug it.

[Oops_my_bad]

isnt there a GPO setting that changes the local admin password?

[Geoff]

no