Passwords

Changing Passwords

The most common use of Batch User Manager is for changing local passwords on machines, particularly local Administrator passwords.

Changing Passwords—The Hard Way

There are many different ways to accomplish the task of changing passwords manually, from walking around from computer to computer and doing it by hand, to using remote control software to perform the same task from a central location.

These suffer from several very major flaws. First, it is necessary to perform the same action again and again by hand, which is not only labor-intensive but is prone to error. Second, it is difficult to keep a proper log of operations—required for most security certifications. Do you check off on a piece of paper which machines have been changed? Then re-enter this information in a database? Or do you keep an open spreadsheet running? Both options are unreliable and unnecessarily complex.

There are also scripts to automate this task, but they too suffer from major flaws. Scripts are notoriously unreliable—when an operation fails on one machine they may stop entirely, or even worse they may never report the failure. Compounding the problem, they may not operate on all machines, leaving much of your network unprocessed with no way for you to know which machines have and haven’t been processed. You’re left carrying around a list of old passwords to try just in case your “current” password doesn’t work.

If you distribute the scripts so that the they run upon login, how do you ensure proper rights and credentials, while also hiding the new password? And what about machines that may be untouched for weeks—when does its password get changed? What if someone logs in with the old password before it’s been changed?

In contrast, if you run a single script from a central location, how do you generate the list of machines? You will always have to worry that some have been left out.

These are very real problems, with a very simple solution.

Changing Passwords—The Easy Way

Batch User Manager makes this process simple.

First, Batch User Manager includes a highly efficient network scanning engine. This allows it to create a comprehensive list of all of the machines on your network. Batch User Manager even finds machines that have been specifically hidden from your domain’s Master Browser List.

Second, Batch User Manager reliably and quickly performs changes on the machines you select. If there is an error on a particular machine, the error is logged and operation continues unaffected. And every successful operation is also logged. This ensures you have a complete and comprehensive record of which machines have had passwords changed and which have not.

When it comes down to it, you need the rock-solid reliability that only Batch User Manager can provide.