Establishing a Wallpaper

[Roberto Pareja]

I am trying to establish a common wallpaper (depending on
the department the user works) for everybody with the
company logo and some other information on the bitmap.
I found the policy (and it works) where I disable the
option for the user to change the wallpaper.
I am new at this and I haven't found if there is a policy
where I can set the new bitmap I want to use for
everybody. The question is: Do I have to go one by one,
copy the bitmap to the local PC, set the wallpaper then
enable the restriction previously mentioned?
Can I keep the bitmap on the domain controller and define
a policy to use that bitmap directly? (so if there are
changes to the defined bitmap I just have to update the
bmp file on the server and when the policy refreshes
everybody will use it.)
Thanks for your help,
Roberto.

 

[Danny Sanders]

You have to put the wallpaper on each client. I believe if you copy it to
the WINNT directory, you can set the policy from the server, you do not have
to set the wallpaper at the user computer.

FYI you can connect to each computer by mapping a drive to it's C$ drive.
For a computer named mycomputer you would right click on My Network Places
(on your computer) and select map network drive. Then type in where it says
"folder"
\\mycomputer\C$ no quotes. You will need to supply the domain admin account
to connect. Browse to their WINNT folder and paste the bitmap that
department will use.
If you have hundreds of computers to do this on you can write a login script
to copy the proper bitmap to the proper computer.


hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE

 

[Roberto Pareja]

Thanks, I do have a couple of hundred computers to apply
the wallpaper....I do have a couple of questions....
what name should the bmp have?
Let's say I name it CompLogo.bmp and put it on a shared
folder on the server.
Then I write a script to automatically copy that file from
the server to the WINNT directory everytime the user logs
on to the domain.
I can't find on the policies how to force an user to use a
specified bitmap name for the wallpaper....I only found
how to prevent the user from changing the wallpaper he is
using.

Thanks again.

 

[Michael]

Under "User Configuration / Administrative Templates /
Desktop / Active Desktop" there are options to
"Enable Active Desktop" and set the "Active Desktop
Wallpaper"

You would need to define a GP called DeptXWallpaper for
each department and use these settings in each GP.

You can save the BMPs to a server share and never mess
with workstations.

Michael

 

[Danny Sanders]

what name should the bmp have?

You can name it whatever you want. You will have a chance to input that name
in your group policy. As long as you copy the bmp in the WINNT\System32
directory you will not have to supply a path where the user's computer gets
the file from.

Then I write a script to automatically copy that file from
the server to the WINNT directory everytime the user logs
on to the domain.

You would only have to do this part once. Copy it to the WINNT\System32
folder.

If you want you can just supply a path to the share on the server where you
have the bmp file (in your group policy "Screen Saver exe" value you can set
a path to the file on the server) and you won't have to copy it to all
computers.
I would tend to want to put the file on each computer, that much less info
the local computer has to get from the network.

I can't find on the policies how to force an user to use a
specified bitmap name for the wallpaper....I only found
how to prevent the user from changing the wallpaper he is
using.

Once you move the appropriate computers into the appropriate OU, open the
Group Policy and go to Users- Administrative Templates - Control Panel -
Display - Screen Saver executable name. It is a few lines below Disable
changing wallpaper.

hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE