How to set/force Classic view/theme for all users (enterprise deployment)

[Guest]

We're configuring a clone master and wish to set Classic view and Classic theme for all users such that when any user logs in with domain credentials the default is Classic (they may modify this if desired, but should start as Classic)

We know how to change all the various settings (folders, Start Menu, theme), but it doesn't "stick" whenever a new user logs in. All help appreciated

Regards,

 

[Gulper]

We're configuring a clone master and wish to set Classic view and Classic

theme for all users such that when any user logs in with domain credentials
the default is Classic (they may modify this if desired, but should start as
Classic).

We know how to change all the various settings (folders, Start Menu,

theme), but it doesn't "stick" whenever a new user logs in. All help
appreciated!

Regards,

You could try Group policy editor you can fix the settings there.
Start\run type: gpedit.msc

If these stick then the users won't be able to change the settings again.

Hope this helps

 

[Gordon Fecyk]

You can edit the default profile to one that uses the classic views.
<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;305709>

This is the approach I took back in Win2K to disable the web-enabled file
views and stuff. It does work in XP, but XP attempts to personalize more
stuff than Win2K did. You can still do it though, with the following
precautions:

* Restore the original directory permissions that the Default User profile
had. This prevents most applications to trying to use its directories to
store stuff. It should just inherit permissions from Documents and
Settings. Restore the Hidden and Read-Only attributes where they were set.

* Remove any personalization from the modified Default User profile. You
can do this by loading the ntuser.dat Registry hive into HKEY_USERS and
editing it. You can even compare the settings in your modified profile with
the original default profile provided with XP to make sure you've removed
all the personalizations.

* Speaking of comparing to the original default profile, MAKE A COPY OF IT
FIRST. Usually I keep copies of original and modified default profiles in
or near the same directory I keep the deployment tools (sysprep etc).

* Remove any personalizations to desktop.ini files in the modified profile.
<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321281>

* Avoid running applications that use Windows Installer technology when
modifying the default user profile. This way, said applications have a
chance to properly personalize themselves. Notable examples include MS
Office 2000 apps and later, MSN Messenger, Windows Media Player 9 and
others. In fact, if possible, install these apps AFTER you modify the
default profile.

* If a Windows Installer-based app needs to read from a CD or network
deployment (ie: Office 2000 and later) when a user uses it for the first
time, make an administrative installation of it. That way, when a new user
runs the app for the first time, and the first-time personalizations occur,
they can occur from the admin installation and won't need the installation
CDs. This and the previous step will avoid seeing your name on the same
document fifty times.

Group policies in an enterprise environment let you do a lot of this but not
everything. This lets you do the defaults at least. It also lets you turn
off a lot of features in IE6 that bad web sites take unfair advantage of,
and lets you pre-populate a list of Trusted Sites and Restricted Sites.