Distrubute a Corporate Screensaver

[jonathan]

I have a screen saver which I want to run on all PC's in the organization.

Is there a way of doing this using Active Directory without going around all
50 PC's and installing it into the system32 directory?

tia


Jonathan

 

[Daniel]

-----Original Message-----

I have a screen saver which I want to run on all PC's in the organization.

Is there a way of doing this using Active Directory without going around all
50 PC's and installing it into the system32 directory?

Providing all the machines are numbered sequentially (or
groups of sequentially numbered PCs), you can create an
app in visual basic that would perform this for you, but
you'd need to know VB in order to do that.

Another way would be to look at WinInstallLE - run the
repackager, let it analyse your machine, copy over your
new screensaver to c:\winnt\system32\logon.scr and then
run WinInstallLE again, which will create a package that
you can deploy to the machines in an AD GP.

D.

 

[Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]]

Daniel,

Can't Jonathan run the GPO to do this?

Cary

 

[Daniel]

Cary,

The GPO only affects the user that's logged on though,
whereas my understanding was that Johnathan wanted to
change the logon.scr that runs when the machine is logged
off and idle.

But otherwise, yes, you can change the setting in the GPO
to alter the screensaver of the user that's logged on.

Daniel

 

[jonathan]

Thanks for this informtion Daniel & Cary!

None of the PC are sequentially numbered and my VB is basic (pardon he pun)
I have just had a thought though can I run it by you?

If I alter the default domain log in script to copy the .scr from a company
share to the local %system32% directory at login would that work?

tia

Jonathan

 

[Daniel]

Johnathan,

Yes, as long as all of your users log on with admin
rights. I presume they don't.

The other way to do it would be to copy it from a share as
a *startup* script rather than a *logon* script. That
might work, but I don't know for sure.

Best of luck.

 

[Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]]

Correct.

The startup script would be a better idea than a logon script.

Cary

 

[jonathan]

Thnx again for your help but I am doing to sound a little thick so please be
gentle with me!

I have only ever used "login" scripts so whats the difference between a
"login" script and a "startup" script?

Regards


Jonathan

 

[Laura E. Hunter \(MVP\)]

A "startup" script is tied to a specific computer, and executes when the
workstation first powers on, regardless of whether anyone logs on.

A "login" script executes when a user logs onto a workstation/server, and is
tied to a user or group object.

 

[Perks]

Distributing a corporate screensaver

The SnapComms enterprise messaging tool allows you to push screensavers to specified groups based on Active Directory. You can schedule screensavers (start and expiry). The channel costs from $1 per user per year (large organisation) and is available as an in-house or fully managed solution.

A free trial and more information can be found here:

http://www.snapcomms.com/products/corporate-screensaver.aspx