I am giving a laptop to an employee to use at home. The user logs in with an AD domain account, and then connects via OpenVPN. Normally this works fine, because the AD login is cached on the device and the user can log in before there is a connection to the AD. But with the new laptop, they cannot start OpenVPN without logging in, but cannot log in without the VPN connection.
OpenVPN also doesn't support connecting at the start screen AFAIK. I also can't use other VPN methods. The built-in VPN methods like IPSec and PPTP might work, but it seems this is poorly unsupported - first Windows expects the name to be DOMAIN\user, but the VPN expects DOMAIN+user, and second I can only reach the VPN before login by gliching the login screen (I forgot how exactly but you need to click a certain button with perfect timing). So that is out.
Is there any way I can pre-cache a certain domain account without having the user's password?
Your question makes no sense. You cannot put in cache, what you don't have, no?
Only way I see is to reset the users password, sign in to populate the cache and send the notebook to the user. Of course, he needs to change the password after logging in.
Alternatively, use any VPN tech that allows for establishing a connection on the logon screen.