imaged and remembers netbios names

[kevin_lane]

I know you can name computers with an answer file etc but let’s say you image a pc and it names it exactly what it should be is it me or is this some sort of feature of windows deployment server ?

[Michael]

By default you cannot name a PC with a Windows 7 answer file. It's auto generated based on the domain name and other factors. This is why I use MySysprep2 which prompts for a computername, then continues the Sysprep process as normal. Why Microsoft cut this out is unclear as friendly computer names do help when managing a network.

 

Here's the script I use.

 

There probably are other methods, but to me this is better as the computername is specified as and when workstations are deployed.

[glennda]

This is one of the benefits of FOG over wds as the image is put onto the machine and although sysprep gives the machine a temporary name FOG will then rename and join to the domain using its friendly name. Plus it's got a whole host of other features.

[morganw]

You can do it fairly easily with WDS + MDT:

Deploying Windows 7 - Part 15: Configuring the MDT Database

 

...or FOG is pretty amazing.

[DMcCoy]

Or you can just use the name and approve option with WDS

[EvLPhenom]

Another +1 for FOG. Find that getting the machine named and auto joined to the domain great and image deployment is pretty much zero touch now. With the exception an enviroment variable and sophos but even they can be done remotely.

[Shimmy]

I'm using Ghost for a long time, and wrote a small utility to rename PCs according to their MAC address based on a provided database in a .csv file. My program renames PCs and then automatically joins them to domain so all the manual stuff is gone. Here's the link Auto rename & Active Directory join tool | Free software downloads at SourceForge.net Edited October 18, 2013 by Shimmy
forgot the link

[Cache]

We use Name and Approve in WDS and it sorts it all out after it has been built once using it - works perfectly for what we need.