PowerShell: OS Build Script for Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2 and Windows 7

Background:

Around 2 years ago, I originally written a set of script to configure newly built Windows 2008 servers using PowerShell when my previous employer started to deploy their very first Windows 2008 server. These set of scripts were the very first scripts I’ve ever written in PowerShell.

Over the time, I have updated them many times and now they also support Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7.

You can download the scripts HERE.

Purpose:

This set of build script is designed to automate the process of building a Windows server (version 2008 and above). It is designed for environments that do not have server SOEs. The intention is to install the OS with default settings and run these scripts right after the OS install. Although they will also work in Windows Vista and Windows 7, the settings are set according to server standard, they may not be suitable for configuring desktop / laptop for your end users.

Below is a list of items that these scripts will configure for you (and where you can set the values for these items):

Item	Configured by	Config-urable	Configure from	Note
Rename Computer	1_OSConfig.PS1	Yes	User Input
Registered Organization	1_OSConfig.PS1	Yes	Configuration.ini (RegisteredOrg)
Registered Owner	1_OSConfig.PS1	Yes	Configuration.ini (RegisteredOwner)
Startup & Recovery Options Small Memory dump (256K) Automatically Restart Write an event to the system log	1_OSConfig.PS1	No
Disabling unwanted services	1_OSConfig.PS1	Yes	Configuration.ini (DisabledService)	Enter the service name (not the display name) for each unwanted services
Enable Remote Desktop	1_OSConfig.PS1	No
Screen Saver with Password Protection	1_OSConfig.PS1	No
Screen Saver	1_OSConfig.PS1	Yes	Configuration.ini (ScreenSaverName)	Name of the screen Saver
Screen Saver time out	1_OSConfig.PS1	Yes	Configuration.ini (ScreenSaverTimeout)	Screen Saver Time out in seconds
Force Classic Start Menu	1_OSConfig.PS1	No
Disable Windows Animations	1_OSConfig.PS1	No
Automatically End Hung Applications on ShutDown	1_OSConfig.PS1	No
My Computer Icon Matches System Name on desktop	1_OSConfig.PS1	No
NTP Time source	1_OSConfig.PS1	Yes	Configuration.ini (NTP)	After joining to the domain, this setting will be ignored as the NTP setting is set to NT5DS
Disable User Account Control	1_OSConfig.PS1	No
Boot menu time out setting	1_OSConfig.PS1	Yes	Configuration.ini (BootTimeOut)	Boot menu time out - in seconds
Power Options - High Performance	1_OSConfig.PS1	No
Regional and Language Options	1_OSConfig.PS1	Yes	Configuration.ini (UserLocale, SystemLocale, ShortDate)
Configure Time Zone	1_OSConfig.PS1	Yes	User Input
Configure Network Connections IP Address Subnet Mask Default Gateway	2_network.PS1	Yes	User Input	Inputs are validated
Rename Active Connections that have names start with "Local Area Connection"	2_network.PS1	No
Configure DNS Servers	2_network.PS1	Yes	Configuration.ini (DNSServer)	Enter the DNS server IP address for each DNS server
Configure DNS Suffix Search List	2_network.PS1	Yes	Configuration.ini (DNSSuffixSearch)	Enter the domain name for each DNS suffix search
Disable LMHosts lookup	2_network.PS1	No
Show Network Connection Icon in Sys Tray - Windows 6.0 (2008 & Vista) only	2_network.PS1	No
Disable IPV6	2_network.PS1	No
Rename Local Admin account	3_Security.PS1	Yes	SecPolicy.inf (NewAdministratorName)
Reset Local Admin Password	3_Security.PS1	Yes	User Input + Configuration.ini (AdminPassword)	User input to decide if the password needs to be changed. New password stored in configuration.ini
Rename Local Guest account	3_Security.PS1	Yes	SecPolicy.inf (NewGuestName)
Reset Local Guest Password	3_Security.PS1	Yes	Configuration.ini (GuestPassword)
Disable Local Guest account	3_Security.PS1	No
Logon legal notice	3_Security.PS1	Yes	SecPolicy.inf [Registry Values]	LegalNoticeCaption and LegalNoticeText
Configure local security policy	3_Security.PS1	Yes	SecPolicy.inf	SecPolicy.inf will be applied to the computer. Log file: security.log
Configuring Event Logs (System, Application & Security)	3_Security.PS1	Yes	SecPolicy.inf	under [system log], [application log] and [security log] section
Configuring audit policies	3_Security.PS1	Yes	SecPolicy.inf	Under [Event Audit] section
Do not display last user name	3_Security.PS1	Yes	SecPolicy.inf	Under [Registry Values]
Configure LAN Manager authentication level	3_Security.PS1	Yes	SecPolicy.inf	Under [Registry Values], In Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7, by default, it is set to only use NTLM V2. bu