When Commands or Batch Files within Novell Login Script Do Not Work : MIKE MORAWSKI

I often use the Novell login script for my own purposes, one of them being a quick hardware audit of any desktop I touch. I’ve noticed that not everything works when running my batch locally, but rarely ever does it work the second the Novell login script fires it off. I had to figure out why this was any different. Running as another user perhaps? Running as a restricted account?

You’ll notice that basic commands can be launched globally, for example you can run ‘notepad.exe’ from c:\ in a dos prompt regardless that notepad actually exists in another folder, decide to suddenly not be found when run in a Novell script. Often you’ll know when the login script fails as it will fly through quickly without having anything done, or you’ll see a blip of a command line screen fade away as quickly as it came in. If you put a pause or save the output on your commands you’ll likely see:

“{Your command} is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.”

What I eventually did was run the set command in a batch file. A set command run gave me this result, when running locally as a regular file and not as part of a Novell login script:

ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\ProgramData
APPDATA=C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Roaming
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
CommonProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramW6432=C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMPUTERNAME=MIKEPC
ComSpec=C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO
HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMEPATH=\Users\Mike
INTEL_DEV_REDIST=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intel\Shared Libraries\
LOCALAPPDATA=C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local
LOGONSERVER=\\MIKEPC
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=4
NWLANGUAGE=ENGLISH
OS=Windows_NT
Path=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intel\Shared Libraries\redist\intel64\c
ompiler;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intel\Shared Libraries\redist\ia32\c
ompiler;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\system32\wbem;C:\Program Files
\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\
Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\Prog
ram Files (x86)\Universal Extractor;C:\Program Files (x86)\Universal Extractor\b
in;C:\Program Files (x86)\Bitvise Tunnelier;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Windows P
erformance Toolkit;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn;C:
\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Binn;C:\Program Files\Windows
Imaging;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn;C:\Program Files\Mi
crosoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Binn;C:\Program Files\SAS\SharedFiles(32)\Formats;C:\
Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files (x86)\Novell\ZENworks\b
in;C:\Program Files (x86)\Smart Projects\IsoBuster;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common
Files\Acronis\SnapAPI;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem;C:\Program File
s (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Windows Performance Toolkit;c:\Program Files (x86)\Micr
osoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\;c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools
\Binn\;c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files (x86
)\Novell\GroupWise;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem\;V:.
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=AMD64
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=Intel64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10, GenuineIntel
PROCESSOR_LEVEL=6
PROCESSOR_REVISION=170a
ProgramData=C:\ProgramData
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
ProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)
ProgramW6432=C:\Program Files
PROMPT=$P$G
PSModulePath=C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\
PUBLIC=C:\Users\Public
QTJAVA=C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\lib\ext\QTJava.zip
SESSIONNAME=Console
SystemDrive=C:
SystemRoot=C:\Windows
TEMP=C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local\Temp
TKPATHX8664=C:\Program Files\SAS\SharedFiles\ICU
TMP=C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local\Temp
USERDOMAIN=MIKEPC
USERNAME=Mike
USERPROFILE=C:\Users\Mike
windir=C:\Windows
WINDOWS_LOGIN=0

Note that these variables can be referenced in any batch script as a variable, for example:

C:\Users\Mike>echo %PROCESSOR_LEVEL%
6

C:\Users\Mike>

Note the huge long global paths of all my wonderful programs in the local batch. Now here is what gets pulled from running the batch file via login script:

ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\ProgramData
APPDATA=C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Roaming
CLASSPATH=.;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\lib\ext\QTJava.zip
CLIENTNAME=MIKEPC
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
CommonProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramW6432=C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMPUTERNAME=MIKEPC
ComSpec=C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO
HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMEPATH=\Users\Mike
INTEL_DEV_REDIST=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intel\Shared Libraries\
LOCALAPPDATA=C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local
LOGONSERVER=\\MIKEPC
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=4
NWLANGUAGE=ENGLISH
OS=Windows_NT
Path=V:.
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=AMD64
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=Intel64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10, GenuineIntel
PROCESSOR_LEVEL=6
PROCESSOR_REVISION=170a
ProgramData=C:\ProgramData
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
ProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)
ProgramW6432=C:\Program Files
PROMPT=$P$G
PSModulePath=C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\
PUBLIC=C:\Users\Public
QTJAVA=C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\lib\ext\QTJava.zip
SystemDrive=C:
SystemRoot=C:\Windows
TEMP=C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local\Temp
TMP=C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Local\Temp
USERDOMAIN=MIKEPC
USERNAME=Mike
USERPROFILE=C:\Users\Mike
windir=C:\Windows
WINDOWS_LOGIN=1

Note the glaring Path=V:.

The workaround here, use full paths for everything you use. You’ll have to be conscious about targeting locations such as Program Files (i.e. Program Files or Program Files (x86)) if you are running the script to target different operating system versions (i.e. Win 7 x86, Win 7 x64, Win Xp).

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