Andy's Techie Blog

*-*Update *-*

Edited the post as i just spotted you can’t see all the command! 

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How do you name computers on your networks?

Since users make such great use of Remote Web Workplace i’ve taken to naming them the same as the user name (obviously this is dependant on one person having their own PC)

It means the user doesn’t have to remember a PC name, when logging in remotely. They click on “Connect to my computer” and look for their name 

“But what if that person leaves the company?!” I hear you cry

Well I have a batch file that I run from the server for renaming computers. It’s much quicker (and not as messy) as doing it manually

Netdom RenameComputer AndyParkes /NewName:AndyParkesPC  /UserD:MyDomain\Administrator 

/PasswordD:*  /Force /ReBoot

pause

Note: The netdom command and it’s parameters are supposed to be on one line. I’ve seperated here for readability 

The pause is so that i can view the output when it’s finished.

If i was going to improve this i’d get it to prompt for the new and old computer names but this is a task i perform so infrequently that it’s easier to just edit the batch file

Also note the * for the password is so it prompts for the password. You can save the password in the batch file but who wants to leave their admin passwords lying around?!

Note. NetDom is part of the Windows XP support tools so you’ll need to load that if your going to do it from your PC