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Upgrade to Ultimate...the "control userpasswords2" thing works just fine for me.I got my Windows 7 upgrade installed and set about installing my radio remote control programs into the machine. This unit operates UNattended most of the time and it is essential that it a) operate reliably and b) be able to automatically recover to normal operation should there be a power failure and c) It has to be able to send and receive files over the LAN to other computers HDs as needed.
With Windows 7, some of this turned out to be problematical. As delivered, Windows 7, when booted, comes to the LOGIN icon and waits for the user to input a password and press the button. This is totally incompatible with UNattended operation. So.. I set about trying to input the old XP/VISTA trick of running "control userpasswords2", then going to the Users window that pops up and UNclicking the "users must login to access this computer" option. UNFORTUNATELY, this option does not work in Windows 7 Professional Edition.
So.. I phone up MS Tech Support and am lucky to find a very cooperative and fairly knowledgable Technician. He understands my problem immediately and tells me that what I want to do is not possible. Says he, USERS MUST click the login button but we can elimiate the password.. Not good enough says I.
If you eliminate the password, then (at least on XP) you cannot access disk drives on networked computers. But I decided to let that one go for awhile.
The Tech set about to try dozens of things. We verfied that the "control userpasswords2" function did not work. Then he went off for awhile and came back and, using remote access, thrashed about for half an hour trying many things. Finally he said, NOW.. Try the control userpasswords2 command again. I did so and THAT TIME it worked. I Unchecked the "users must login....." feature and exited. I found that a) The machine would boot up and no password input was required and b) No one had to press the login icon and YES! I could still access the remote computer's disk drives even though my administrator user name had no password!
So.. All this is possible in Win7, but the Win7 folks (in their great wisdom) have made it impossible for ordinary system builders to do what we need to do.
I build a lot of computers for a) video security systems, b) mail servers, c) building automation displays, and d) even my own ham radio computer. All these need to be able to boot up UNattended without human intervention.
Since the TECH went away, the "control userpasswords2" command has been inoperative. Does anyone know how to repeat the above and have the functionality above come alive in Windows 7 WITHOUT having to spend an hour on the phone with MicroSoft Tech Support?
Thanks.
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