Group Policy for Desktop Icons\Short cuts

[Guest]

I was wondering if anyone knows whether there is a GP setting so that an
administrator can choose which icon\short cuts appear on users desktops?

Appreciate any help with this one

 

[Mark Heitbrink [MVP]]

I was wondering if anyone knows whether there is a GP setting so that an
administrator can choose which icon\short cuts appear on users desktops?

There is none, because there is no Client Side Extension to deploy
files/shortcuts what ever.
Loginscript is a solution, redirected desktop folder another one
or 3rd Party: PolicyMaker from Desktopstandard.

mark

 

[Guest]

Thanks for that Mark.

The problem i am having is that i have user groups eg Year 1- 6. They use
about 45 2000 and XP machines. When i clear the old short cuts from their
respective profiles, they are unfortunately recreated when they login from a
client. Is there anyway, to prevent these short cuts being uploaded again to
the server?

I wanted not to have to go around and delete from each clients cache memory.?

Thanks again

 

[Mark Heitbrink [MVP]]

Hi,

The problem i am having is that i have user groups eg Year 1- 6. They use
about 45 2000 and XP machines. When i clear the old short cuts from their
respective profiles, they are unfortunately recreated when they login from a
client.

Delete them in a Login script and recreate them all in this script.
Or redirect the desktop folder to a read only share on your server.

Mark

 

[Guest]

Mark would it be possible for you to explain each of these options in a
little more details please?

Could you show me an example of a login script that would acheive this?

Thanks again

 

[Mark Heitbrink [MVP]]

Hi,

Mark would it be possible for you to explain each of these options in a
little more details please?

User login script:
- create a share, where you place all the links a user should have
- replace all
---- deskshortcut.bat -----
del %userprofile%\desktop\*.lnk
copy \server\share\*.lnk %userprofile%\desktop\

---- deskshortcut.bat -----

.... or just add or delete the wanted ones ...

Redirect Desktop Folder to a network share, then you can get
a centralized store fore all users. Just use the Folder Redirection
thats integrated in group policy or do it hardcoded with an own
ADM template

---- desktop.adm (beware of line break) ----
CLASS USER

CATEGORY "Folder Redirection"
POLICY "Folder - Desktop"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell
Folders"
PART "Reidrekt Desktop to a network share" EDITTEXT
DEFAULT "\\yourserver\yourshare"
VALUENAME Desktop
EXPANDABLETEXT
END PART
END POLICY
END CATEGORY

---- desktop.adm (beware of line break) ----

Mark

 

[Guest]

Thanks Mark, you Obveriously know your sh!t..

Hi,


User login script:
- create a share, where you place all the links a user should have
- replace all
---- deskshortcut.bat -----
del %userprofile%\desktop\*.lnk
copy \server\share\*.lnk %userprofile%\desktop\

---- deskshortcut.bat -----

.... or just add or delete the wanted ones ...

Redirect Desktop Folder to a network share, then you can get
a centralized store fore all users. Just use the Folder Redirection
thats integrated in group policy or do it hardcoded with an own
ADM template

---- desktop.adm (beware of line break) ----
CLASS USER

CATEGORY "Folder Redirection"
POLICY "Folder - Desktop"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell
Folders"
PART "Reidrekt Desktop to a network share" EDITTEXT
DEFAULT "\\yourserver\yourshare"
VALUENAME Desktop
EXPANDABLETEXT
END PART
END POLICY
END CATEGORY

---- desktop.adm (beware of line break) ----

Mark
--
Mark Heitbrink - MVP Windows Server
Homepage: www.gruppenrichtlinien.de
W2K FAQ : http://w2k-faq.ebend.de
PM: Vorname@Homepage, Versende-Adresse wird nicht abgerufen.

 

[Kurt]

Also, determining the source of the icons - I mean if the icons are part of
the default user profile, re-create the default profile without the icons
and then create the appropriate ones with the logon script as suggested by
Mark (You'll have to delete them and re-create them each logon, but at least
they'll all be there as a function of your script). If you want to assign
the logon the old "NT" way, you can have a script for each of your six
groups and assign them by user. Or if you create your script using VB or
jscript, you can map the specific icons acording to group membership, all
form the same script. Check out the "scripting guys" at microsoft. They have
archives of wsh scipts that you can copy and modify to suit your specific
needs.

....kurt

 

[lforbes]

The problem i am having is that i have user groups eg Year 1- 6. They
use about 45 2000 and XP machines. When i clear the old short cuts
from their respective profiles, they are unfortunately recreated when
they login from a client. Is there anyway, to prevent these short cuts
being uploaded again to the server? I wanted not to have to go around
and delete from each clients cache memory.?

I am assuming you are using Roaming Profiles? First of all, the Local
Profiles can be deleted on logoff and you can setup Group Policy not
to have clients cache the policies. They are Group Policy Settings.
Computer-Window Settings-Security Settings-Local Policies-Security
Options- "Interactive Logon- Number of logons to cache - set to 0".
Computer Config-Admin Templates-System-User Profiles - Delete cached
copies of Roaming Profiles.

I created a script that wipes out all the profiles in the Documents
and settings except All Users, Administrators and Default User.
However, I don’t have it on me. I use it when the above settings
still don’t stop the caching.

1> Other options include - Redirecting the Desktop to the folder on
the server. OR
2> Use Mandatory Profiles so they always download from the server and
never upload. However, then any profile changes the users make
doesn’t stick. This is the one I use all the time. I don’t allow
my 2400 users to have the ability to change anything but their
backgrounds. I have redirected everything and use Mandatory Profiles.

Cheers,

Lara