1. Detection of Windows 7 Operating Systems

For a full list of changes, see the change log

/H /?		Opens this document
/N:<new name>		Silent Operation. Updates computer name without intervention, no dialogue is shown This command switch supports the following variables:
	$MAKE	Computer Manufacturer from the BIOS using WMI (WMI functions require Windows 2000 or later)
	$MODEL	Computer Model from the BIOS using WMI
	$SERIALNUM	Computer Serial Number from the BIOS using WMI
	$ASSETTAG	Computer Asset Tag from the BIOS using WMI (SMBIOSASSetTag From Win32_SystemEnclosure)
	$CHASSIS	Computer Form Factor, returns "D" for desktops, "L" for laptops using WMI
	$MAC	MAC Address of the primary Ethernet Adapter as the Computer Name
	$MAC2	MAC Address of the primary Ethernet Adapter as the Computer Name, forces use of the IPCONFIG method (refer here)
	$IP	IP Address of the primary Ethernet Adapter as the Computer Name (swaps the '.' for '-' to avoid DNS confusion)
	$DNS $DNS:<dns server>	Determine Workstations new using Reverse DNS lookup, see below for more details for reverse lookup mode
	$USERID	Name to the name of the currently logged in user
	$OSVER	TLA for OS Version (W95, W2K etc)
	$RANDOM	Generates a random 15 Character name
	$CURRENTNAME	The existing workstation name
/UNATTEND:		Writes the new name to a text file for use in a Unattended or SysPrep build process
/LOGFILE:		Allows you to specify an alternate location for the log file (normally in the %temp% directory)
/EXCLUDEADAPTERS[adapters]		Network Adapters to ignore when looking for the MAC address
/IGNOREMEMBERSHIP		Ignore Domain Membership checking
/WG:<workgroup>		Specify the Workgroup membership
/PG:<Name to Check>		Post Ghost mode, see below for more details on Post Ghost
/NS		Name Sync mode, sets the host name to the computer name, no dialogue is shown
/REBOOT		Reboot on completion, only effective when using /NS or /N (reboots only if name is changed)
/NOREBOOT		Suppresses reboot prompt in GUI mode
/MCN		Sets 'My Computer' name on the desktop to the Computer Name
/SCD		Sets Computer Description to the Computer Name
/SCD:<description>		Sets Computer Description to specified string, enclose in quotes if the string contains spaces. Max length 256 characters.
/SDL		Set Drive Label, sets the label of drive C:\ to the Computer Name (On non-NTFS drives the name is truncated to 11 characters as this is the max length of a drive label with the FAT and FAT32 file system)
/LOT		Sets "Log On To" option in the logon GINA to the machine name (WinNT + only)
/CHO		Changes Host Name only (Leaves NetBIOS name unchanged)
/ADR		Always Do Rename, WSName normally stops processing if the old and new names are the same, this switch ignores this test
/RCID		Rename Computer in Domain
/USER:		Name of user with rights to perform the /RCID operation
/PASS:		Password of user with rights to perform the /RCID operation
/DELETEEXISTING		For use with /RCID, will attempt to delete an existing account with the new name
/RDF:		Read new name from data file
/DFK:		Data file key
/LONGDNSHOST		Allows long DNS hostnames to be used (up to 63 chars), NetBIOS names is truncated to first 15 chars
/NOSTRICTNAMECHECKING		Using this switch relaxes the name checking rules, allowing pre Windows 2000 naming conventions to be used.

Silent mode does not display the GUI interface and is initiated using the /N switch.

You can specify a new name or use a combination of variables to build a name that suits you requirements. You can also truncate strings ensure the result will fit in the 15 char size limit by specifying the size in square brackets "[]".
By default all strings are truncated from the left hand side, to truncate from the right append a "+" to the number.

So putting it all together..

The /WG:<workgroup> option gives the ability to change the Workgroup membership,  this command can be run either on its own or in conjunction with a rename.

Notes:
Added in version 2.74
Will not move a computer that is joined to a Domain into a Workgroup
This function uses the NetJoinDomain API so is supported on Windows 2000 or later only

WSName creates an extensive log of its operations in the %TEMP% directory (WSName.log). Check this out to see what WSName is doing.

If for some reason you want the logfile stored somewhere else, use the /LOGFILE switch

Click here to view a sample VB script that enables you to rename remote computers (uses WMI so only Windows 2000 and above) or if you are more comfortable with Batch files then check out this version that uses PSEXEC from SysInternals.

Post Ghost mode checks the name of the computer against the name passed with the /PG switch, if the names match the standard dialog is shown, otherwise the program terminates.

As workstations build via Ghost (or similar cloning tool) will have the same name the idea was to call WSName via a login script or Novell Application Launcher (NAL)  force run to remind the workstation builder to set the workstations name correctly.

This mode of operation performs a reverse DNS lookup against the primary DNS server to determine the workstations name. This may be handy for those installations using static IP address assignments but should work ok with dynamic DNS sites too.

You can either parse the IP address of a DNS server that holds the PTR records for the target workstation, or allow WSName to use your primary DNS server setting.

e.g.	wsname /N:$DNS
	wsname /N:$DNS:192.168.30.55

The GetNetworkParams API call is used to find the DNS server for supported operating systems, otherwise the program will try to use "winipcfg" or "ipconfig" and capture the output.

This mode of operation writes the new name to a text file for use in a Unattended or SysPrep build process. It does not attempt to rename the computer or perform any other operations.

Notes:
Added in version 2.83

This mode of operation looks in a text file for the new name. This gives the ability to build up a data file that maps devices to their names. The most obvious identifier to search on is the MAC address or Serial Number

If the path to the data file or the search key contain spaces, you will need to wrap them in quotes.

Syntax

wsname  /RDF:DataFile  /DFK:SearchKey

Example

wsname  /RDF:"F:\DATA\MACAddress to PC Name.txt" /DFK:00508B052AE8 or
wsname  /RDF:"F:\DATA\MACAddress to PC Name.txt" /DFK:$MAC or
wsname  /RDF:"F:\DATA\MACAddress to PC Name.txt" /DFK:$SERIALNUM

Example Data File Format

00508B052AE8 = Computer1
005056C00008 = Computer2
005056C00001 = Computer3
....

Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0

The workstation name is read using the "GetComputerName" API can and set using the "SetComputerName" API call, sadly both of these functions only concern themselves with the NetBIOS name, the TCPIP name (hostname) needs to be manipulated separately, I can't find an API that does this (and if you know of one please let me know) so WSName writes directly to the registry, the keys that hold this information differ between Windows NT and Windows 9x.

Windows NT	HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\
Windows 9x	HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP\

Windows 2000 and above - Rename Stand Alone Workstation

Windows 2000 and later support the new and improved SetComputerNameEx API, this allows us to set the Host and NetBIOS name together.

Windows 2000 and above - Rename Workstation in Domain

If the "Rename in Domain" option (/RCID) is selected the NetRenameMachineInDomain API is used, this renames the Workstation and updates the Domain or Active Directory with the new name. Remember that you will need to pass a username and password with appropriate Domain rights delegated to perform this function.

In all cases the workstation needs to be rebooted for the change to take effect.

WSName examines the new workstation name for validity based on the following:

Windows 2000 or better:
Only the characters 'a-z', 'A-Z', '0-9' and '-' are considered valid. Additionally the name cannot start with a hyphen ('-') or be all numeric.
Valid names are generally set at 15 characters or less, however if  for some reason you do want to use longer computer names, Windows does allow the DNS host name to be up to 63 characters. To enable this use the /LONGDNSHOST switch. The NetBIOS name will be truncated to the first 15 characters.

Older Windows Versions:
Microsoft Support Document Q188997 details that valid NetBIOS computer names can be up to 15 alphanumeric characters with no blank spaces. The name must be unique on the network and can contain the following special characters:

! @ # $ % ^ & ( ) - _ ' { } . ~

The following characters are not allowed:

\ * + = | : ; " ? < > ,

As WSName sets both the NetBIOS and Hosts names a computer name cannot contain a period (.) as the text to the right of the period would be treated as part of the DNS domain name.

Host names have slightly looser naming rules but since we would normally want computer and host name to be the same, WSName uses the most restrictive.

Renaming a workstation that is a member of a domain is supported on Windows 2000 and later versions only.

This option requires access to the domain so a User ID and Password is required. For security the password is masked in the logfile.

eg: wsname /n:mynewname /rcid /user:mydomain\administrator /pass:secret

If you don't want to provide the password in clear text, there is an option to mask the password using the /PASSM: switch 

eg: wsname /n:mynewname /rcid /user:mydomain\administrator /passm:H#FG$RFGHYD4G6Hj

To get the masked password use the /MASKPASSWORD switch

eg: wsname /MASKPASSWORD /PASS:secret

Note: If the new computer name already exists in the Domain the operation will fail with a 2224 error (The user account already exists). The same error occurs if you try to change the computer name through the GUI (my computer | properties | computer name | change). To avoid this you can use the /DELETEEXISTING option, this will attempt to delete the computer account and retry the operation.

Microsoft Support Document Q175023 shows the renaming of a Windows NT workstation to be very painful, I'm not going to code that!
 

The MAC Address checks for OS support of the GetAdaptersInfo API and will use it if available. If it's not there (Win95 and NT4) then the old unreliable NetBIOS method is used.

The NetBIOS method is known to fail sometimes if the machine is disconnected from the network (media disconnected) or if the machine has no NetBIOS support.

If the NetBIOS method does fail then the program will try to use "winipcfg" or "ipconfig" to capture the output. (if you want to force using this method you can use $MAC2 rather than $MAC)
Please note that as this method uses screen scraping it will fail on non English versions of Windows.

eg:

wsname /N:WS-$MAC

will give you a new name of WS-00508B052AE8

You can use the /EXCLUDEADAPTERS switch to specify network adapters to ignore when looking for the MAC address. The matching check searches for the given string in the adapters description.

eg:	wsname /N:WS-$MAC /EXCLUDEADAPTERS[WIRELESS WLAN BLUETOOTH PPP VMWARE IPSEC]

In order to change a workstations name you NEED to have local administrator permissions. Lets say you want to call wsname from a logon script which runs under the context of a standard user, normally wsname will fail as it would have sufficient rights to perform the rename. One option is to use the RunAs command and some vbscript to run wsname with elevated permissions. Check out this example.

Note: It should be fairly obvious that using this technique will add some security exposure as the local administrator password will be visible to anyone looked an the contents of the script.

Using SQL to automatically create a self incrementing computer naming system.
Lets say you want to call your workstations WKS-1, WKS-2, WKS-3 and so on, but you're too busy or too lazy to set up a data file manually. You could create a simple text file using script and have the workstations add themselves, but the problem with using text files is that if two or more computers try to update it at the same time you will loose data. This example uses SQL to create a table of machine names based on MAC addresses and shells out to WSName if the name in SQL is not the same as the current name. View it here

1. Using WSName during the minisetup phase of Windows Installation:
   
   If you are calling wsname from the cmdlines.txt phase of minisetup, please note that WMI calls will not work.
   It appears the WMI provider is not available at this time.
   MAC address functions are ok as these don't use WMI.
   
2. Refer to the section on Using MAC Addresses  (/MAC) for limitations under Win95 and NT4 prior to SP4

If WSName exits normally there is no error code, however if an abnormal end occurs the following error codes are set.

WSName and NetWare login scripts

WSName can be called from within NetWare login scripts but remember if your want to use login script variables, some are case sensitive (%LOGIN_NAME is ok but %login_name doesn't return the login name).

eg: #z:\wsname /N:%LOGIN_NAME

Get it here. I apologise in advance for my coding.

Thanks to Francois Piette for the Reverse DNS lookup function, check out his WSocket components at http://www.overbyte.be
Thanks to Markus, Laszlo & John, I use their UPX to shrink wsname down to a more acceptable 200k. Uncompressed it's about 500k!
Thanks also to Marius Gaudin for providing the password masking routines.

1. Detection between Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista (both report 6.0)
2. Add the help information back in, probably just the basics
3. Add ability to write log info the STDOUT for debugging

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the author be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.