Installing a disabled device?

[Electronic Punk]

I have a small issue that I am trying to work around.

Basically we have D-series latitudes that come with wireless enabled which is great, but we want them to have that feature enabled in a password protected bios.

Each laptop will have two hard drives one for work and one for home - they can do as they like with the home one.

But the work one I need wireless disabled by default. It isn't a case of leaving the driver out as it will just prompt me for a driver and in this world of automation I don't want to have to manually disable the device every time it is rebuilt.

Is there a way to disable a device as part of its driver installation from the inf?

 

[kcnychief]

Assuming the work one is touchable by GPO, can you not just disable the services for this? I can't recall the name atm but the Dell NICs have a service related to them I believe.

If not, you could just build a run-once into your image to disable it. Not sure what you are asking is possible in the .inf though.

 

[Electronic Punk]

We have looked at a service called Wireless Zero Configuration and while stopping this will stop the user from joining any new wireless networks it won't stop them from connecting to previously connected preferred networks.

Unless anyone knows where this preferred list is stored?
I thought disabling the driver would be just as cool though and a more lateral way of thinking as this problem hasn't been solved in my searches but then my situation is a little more unique... they can plug a cat5 cable in and do what they want but wireless oh noes!

 

[X-Istence]

Can't you restrict that control box using group policies?

 

[Electronic Punk]

Not from what I have seen.

 

[kcnychief]

Can't recall specifically atm, but I created a .wpn file that when imported, will wipe the current network list and replace with whatever you desire.

I'm at the airport right now, when I land later I'll check into some documentation and get back to you. Might be able to shed some light on the situation. Are you using the Dell Wireless Utility to manage or the Windows Interface?

 

[Electronic Punk]

I install the driver automatically and the device varies of course depending on whether it is a D600, D610, D620 or D630.

I think installing it as disabled would be the easiest option but not sure if thats possible

 

[kcnychief]

I don't know what your other options would be - but do you use docking stations in the office? If so, just have wifi disabled and enabled that way using hardware profiles?

 

[Electronic Punk]

Not good enough, the worry is them using their company builds on WIFI networks at home which would be completely unacceptable (even though I appreciate they could just plug a cat5 cable in)

 

[LeeJend]

We have looked at a service called Wireless Zero Configuration and while stopping this will stop the user from joining any new wireless networks it won't stop them from connecting to previously connected preferred networks.

Are you sure about that? I was setting a lpaotp up for restricted area and disabling wireless zero config stopped finding new networks or connecting to previous prefered networks. I rebooted several times and there was no connectivity available even though I was in range of a previous prefered network until I turned the service back on. Thsi was with XP Corp all the latest SP's and patches.

I stopped the service first (while it was connected to the prefered network) then changed it to disabled.

 

[Electronic Punk]

Might be worth checking, thanks.