Systems Management

Sorry for the length of this post! I have been running unattended 2000 and XP installs just with basic sif files. To install programs:

1. My sif calls for 1 local admin logon to run c:\installs\start.cmd.
2. Start.cmd adds AD groups to the local groups, renames the admin account and password, copies over the default profile with a default profile according to the computer's name, sets the student domain name to display in the domain name field for logon, sets the computer to autologon to a domain account, then reboots the machine.
3. After reboot, the autologn occurs, autologon is disabled, programs are installed. The final program to be installed is Deep Freeze, which forces a reboot of the computer.

But my start.cmd doesn't work unless I invoke it manually. I think that's because I have directions in my sif file to join the computer to the domain and place it in a specific OU. So when the computer logs in the first time, I'm pretty sure it loads the default domain name to the student domain so that the local administrator can't log on. (Does this sound possible???)

To make a long story short (sorry [:o]) can't I just replace all of the above with a GPO or two? I'm would do this by publishing some of the programs and using a start up script to install the rest of the programs, add the user accounts etc.

1. Is a GPO that publishes a program always run before a start up script? If not, can I modify the run order?
2. Can I force a computer to reboot using a startup script.
3. Can I set a startup script only to run if it's the first time a computer has joined the OU? Or do I have to set some sort of flag in my startup script? (IE c:\flag\flag.txt already exists so don't run this startup script).

Thanks, Jeremy