Q. You cannot clear the Enable Authentication check box for a COM+ library application in the Component Services administrative tool in Windows Server 2003?

You cannot clear the Enable Authentication check box for a COM+ (Component Object Model) library application in Component Services on Windows Server 2003.

This behavior is the result of conflict in the data update process that occurs between the GUI and the COM+ catalog.

Microsoft had written the ChangeAuthentication.vbs script to modify the authentication property of a COM+ library application.

The syntax for using the ChangeAuthentication.vbs script is:

cscript ChangeAuthentication.vbs <ApplicationName> <on/off>

Where:

<ApplicationName> is the COM+ library application for which you want to change the authentication property.
<on/off>          is on to enable authentication and off to disable authentication.

NOTE: If you use ChangeAuthentication.vbs to disable authentication, the user interface for the Component Services tool will still display a selected Enable Authentication check box.

ChangeAuthentication.vbs contains:

Option Explicit
Dim AppName
Dim oArgs
Dim lRet
Dim Switch
Set oArgs = WScript.Arguments
If oArgs.Length  2 Then
	WScript.Echo "usage:"
	WScript.Echo ">cscript ChangeAuthentication.vbs "
Else
	AppName = oArgs(0)
	Switch = oArgs(1)
	lRet = EnableAuthentication(AppName, Switch)
End If

'====================================================

' EnableAuthentication
' Param stAppName COM+ Application name
' Param stSwitch on - check "Authentication", off - uncheck
' 
====================================================
Function EnableAuthentication(stAppName, stSwitch)
	Dim oCatalog
	Dim oApps
	Dim oApp
	Set oCatalog = CreateObject("ComAdmin.COMAdminCatalog")
	Set oApps = oCatalog.GetCollection("Applications")
	oApps.Populate
	WScript.Echo("Searching " & stAppName & "...")
	For Each oApp In oApps
		If UCase(oApp.Name) = UCase(stAppName) Then
			WScript.Echo("Found " & stAppName & ". ")
			Exit For
		Else
			' WScript.Echo("AppName " & oApp.Name & " No Match.")
		End If
	Next	
	If oApp.Value("Activation")  0 Then
		WScript.Echo("AppName " & oApp.Name & " is not Library Application.")
		EnableAuthentication = -1
		Exit Function
	End If	
	If UCase(stSwitch) = UCase("on") Then
		oApp.Value("Authentication") = 0
	ElseIf UCase(stSwitch) = UCase("off") Then
		oApp.Value("Authentication") = 1
	Else
		WScript.Echo("Switch is invalid.")
		EnableAuthentication = -1
		Exit Function
	End If	
	oApps.SaveChanges()
	WScript.Echo("Finished.")
	EnableAuthentication = 0
End Function