Forcing user to logoff

[kharrison30]

I want to be able to have users log off the network at 1:00 a.m. and force the pc to logoff also at the same time, because I want the user in the morning to have to reinitiate login scripts. I know how to force the user to log off at 1:00, but I don't know how to force the computer to logoff at 1:00 a.m.

Is this possible on a server with windows 2000 server with active directory?

 

[wdoellefeld]

Hi.

Not sure I'm understanding you correctly when you say you want the PC to logoff. Do you mean you want the PC to shutdown?


FRCP

http://www.frcp.net

 

[kharrison30]

I wouldn't mind if the pc shutoff. My bosses idea is when the user's account gets forced off the pc at 1:00 a.m, that when the user logs back into their pc at 8:00 a.m. that the logon scripts run. So if our users would have to turn on their pc in the morning I wouldn't mind.

 

[teqmod]

The machine would not necessarily need to be shutdown for htis to happen. Everytime a user logs in a start-up script runs. Not really sure what you mean by logging off the machine. A machine being part of the domain doesn't really "log on", this just allows domain access to the machine. This is what allows you to push policies to the machine.

 

[kharrison30]

I think that my boss has scripts for the startup of the computer and that is why he wants to computer to logoff or turn off. Is there a policy in Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 that would logoff your pc?

 

[NortonES2]

Still don't undertsand how a computer can logoff. Start-up scripts, do these run on the PC as services or are they in the startup folder? If they are services and set to automatic then they will run when the PC is powered on, if in the startup folder then they run when a user logs on.

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If it doesn't leak oil it must be empty!!

 

[Jet7]

I don't know if you'd mind going to each machine but a possible solution is to set the task scheduler to run at 1am to a shortcut you create with the following parameters:
"C:\Windows\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 5" sans quotes.
This should force a shutdown. Bear in mind that if the user left a file open that they haven't saved it will be lost due to the shutdown being forced with no prompts.
Don't know if that's what you're looking for but hope that helps!

 

[kharrison30]

Thanks for the help. I appreciate everyone's thoughts. I'm fairly new to Active Directory.

Have a good weekend.

 

[kmcferrin]

I'd like to clarify something. While a PC doesn't "log on" to the network per se, it does have a domain account and corresponding SID that it uses to authenticate to a domain. This authentication process happens on boot as part of the "configuring network connections" phase of the startup. If you have group policies assigned to the machine (software installations would be one example) they are applied after the PC authenticates to the domain.

This may not seem important at first, but there are some important functions that rely on this authentication taking place. In my environment me have wireless access points and use Cisco Secure ACS to lock down the access points. In order to connect via the wireless AP, your machine must authenticate to the domain as part of the bootup process. If you have a wireless laptop and it is not part of our domain, it will not be able to use the wireless network.