Logon Scripts

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Windows Logon Scripts

From October 1999, users of PCs running all versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems will see a change when they logon¹. The most noticeable feature of this change will be a dialog box like the one left that will appear on the screen after you have entered your username and password and clicked OK. After about 10 seconds the window will disappear. Under normal circumstances² you should not click the Cancel button but rather wait for the Logon Script to complete.

Please wait while your logon script executes ...

The reason for this change is to allow a 'Logon Script' to run on your PC. The script has been designed to perform some actions that should help ensure that your PC operates properly. Specifically, the logon script does the following:

Sets the system date and time on the machine (on Windows NT you need to have specific permissions to set the system time, the script will only attempt to set the date if you have this permission).
Updates the f-secure (formerly known as f-prot) virus definition tables³ (if f-secure is installed).
Mounts the users M: drive (except on Windows NT where this happens automatically).
Runs a local batch file (if it exists). The intended use of this file is to allow administrators to customise machines. The location of this local batch file depends the operating system that the machine is running. This is as follows:

Operating System	File location
Windows NT	%SystemRoot%\logon.bat (%SystemRoot% is an environment variable that points to the location that Windows NT is installed. This is usually C:\WINNT).

Windows95/Windows98	%Winbootdir%\logon.bat (%Winbootdir% is an environment variable that points to the location that Windows95/98 is installed. This is usually C:\WINDOWS).

Windows for Workgroups/Windows 3.11	C:\WINDOWS\logon.bat.

Notes

This applies only to people logging on to the CAMPUS domain. This is what almost all PCs are configured to do. Unless you know otherwise, you probably logon to the CAMPUS domain.
If the logon script doesn't terminate within a reasonable amount of time (for example a minute or more), you can press Cancel to enable you to continue using the PC. It is recommended you do not routinely press Cancel.
If the environment variable NOFSUPDATE is defined, this prevents the f-secure update from taking place. This feature is in place to allow administrators to update f-secure by other methods.

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