My Documents redirection Question

[Mike]

Does anyone know how to do this?

How do I redirect My Documents to a network resource eg.
\\server\share\<%USERNAME%> for each user who logs onto an
XP Pro workstation, with a non-AD back end (NT 4.0 domain).

Thanks!!!

 

[JeffO]

I would have a logon script map a drive letter.
Once mapped, you can redirect each PC to the drive letter
as if it was local.
There are a number of ways to do these steps.
It can all be scripted.
The clunky way to do it, but fine if there aren't many PCs
to do this, is to manually get on each logon on each PC
and click on the My Documents icon (if displayed on the
desktop), Properties, and choose a new location, even
unmapped out on the network.

The registry path to each user's My documents path is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Explorer\Shell Folders > Personal

The generic registry file would look like this:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersio
n\Explorer\Shell Folders]
"Personal"="\\\\server\\share\%username%"

 

[Mike]

Jeff,

Thanks for your post. I pretty much have all that info
down. Problem is, all that stuff resides in the User
hives. I want everyone who logs into the XP machines to
map that stuff, which means it would have to be in
LOCAL_MACHINE somewhere, or somehow set through an
external login batch file, which I haven't figured out how
to do yet. Any ideas? I can't configure each PC for
each user, because I don't know who will log onto which
PCs (this is a hospital with 90% public PCs, so we may
have many users logging into any of the PCs at any time).

Thanks,

Mike

-----Original Message-----
I would have a logon script map a drive letter.
Once mapped, you can redirect each PC to the drive letter
as if it was local.
There are a number of ways to do these steps.
It can all be scripted.
The clunky way to do it, but fine if there aren't many PCs
to do this, is to manually get on each logon on each PC
and click on the My Documents icon (if displayed on the
desktop), Properties, and choose a new location, even
unmapped out on the network.

The registry path to each user's My documents path is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersio n
\Explorer\Shell Folders > Personal

The generic registry file would look like this:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersio
n\Explorer\Shell Folders]
"Personal"="\\\\server\\share\%username%"

-----Original Message-----
Does anyone know how to do this?

How do I redirect My Documents to a network resource eg.
\\server\share\<%USERNAME%> for each user who logs onto an
XP Pro workstation, with a non-AD back end (NT 4.0 domain).

Thanks!!!

.

.

 

[Mike]

If I put \\\\server\\share\%username% in the Current_user
hive, wouldn't that just apply to the current user? The
next (new) user logs in, won't get that, correct? Or
maybe I'm mistaken?

Also, I never understood - why the extra couple of \\'s at
the beginning of a UNC path in the registry sometimes?
Wierd.

Thanks,

Mike

-----Original Message-----
I would have a logon script map a drive letter.
Once mapped, you can redirect each PC to the drive letter
as if it was local.
There are a number of ways to do these steps.
It can all be scripted.
The clunky way to do it, but fine if there aren't many PCs
to do this, is to manually get on each logon on each PC
and click on the My Documents icon (if displayed on the
desktop), Properties, and choose a new location, even
unmapped out on the network.

The registry path to each user's My documents path is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersio n
\Explorer\Shell Folders > Personal

The generic registry file would look like this:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersio
n\Explorer\Shell Folders]
"Personal"="\\\\server\\share\%username%"

-----Original Message-----
Does anyone know how to do this?

How do I redirect My Documents to a network resource eg.
\\server\share\<%USERNAME%> for each user who logs onto an
XP Pro workstation, with a non-AD back end (NT 4.0 domain).

Thanks!!!

.

.

 

[JeffO]

Try adding it to the HKEY_USERS\.Default hive so that all
new user get it. I've had mixed success with this method.
Some additions aren't allowed and simply don't work
(although they don't cause issues).
A network policy or old-fashioned logon batch script could
be run on all users that log on. You could stick the batch
script on the network, or distribute it to the same
location on all client PCs.
You can stick the invocation of the script into
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run so that
all logged-on users will run the script. (This will affect
all local accounts incluiding admin.)

Chain of events:
User logs on
HKLM Run key automatically runs your batch script
batch script remaps the My Documents folder into the
Current_User hive.

-----Original Message-----
Jeff,

Thanks for your post. I pretty much have all that info
down. Problem is, all that stuff resides in the User
hives. I want everyone who logs into the XP machines to
map that stuff, which means it would have to be in
LOCAL_MACHINE somewhere, or somehow set through an
external login batch file, which I haven't figured out how
to do yet. Any ideas? I can't configure each PC for
each user, because I don't know who will log onto which
PCs (this is a hospital with 90% public PCs, so we may
have many users logging into any of the PCs at any time).

Thanks,

Mike

-----Original Message-----
I would have a logon script map a drive letter.
Once mapped, you can redirect each PC to the drive letter
as if it was local.
There are a number of ways to do these steps.
It can all be scripted.
The clunky way to do it, but fine if there aren't many PCs
to do this, is to manually get on each logon on each PC
and click on the My Documents icon (if displayed on the
desktop), Properties, and choose a new location, even
unmapped out on the network.

The registry path to each user's My documents path is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersi

o

n
\Explorer\Shell Folders > Personal

The generic registry file would look like this:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersio

n\Explorer\Shell Folders]
"Personal"="\\\\server\\share\%username%"

-----Original Message-----
Does anyone know how to do this?

How do I redirect My Documents to a network resource eg.
\\server\share\<%USERNAME%> for each user who logs onto an
XP Pro workstation, with a non-AD back end (NT 4.0 domain).

Thanks!!!

.

.

.