This could be done messy or elegantly.
Messy:
Put a link to a network located PPS in the StartUp folder of each machine.
When Windows start (or logs in) the StartUp folder contents are run, there
is a non-zero chance that when this tries to fire, not all the network
connects are completed or some services may not be started. As a result it
may fail. Since this is the easy solution, you may want to test this out
for your network. If the file does not exist on the network location, the
user will get an error.
Elegant:
Create (on every machine) a small VB/C/.NET app. Again put a link to this
in the StartUp folder. The code of the app would 1) check the network
location the PPS file's existence, wait your default amount of time, and
check it again. If it does not find the file after X number of tries or
seconds, it gives up and assumes there is no message. If it does, it fires
up that link to the network PPS.
In both cases, this procedure will slow down the startup process, perhaps
not much, perhaps a lot depending on your network and computers. I hate
waiting for computer's to boot, and anything that makes this time longer is
a bad thing (like finding lava in your basement).
In both cases, if the file is found when the computer is ready for it, it
will run the slideshow (should be short and auto advance through). Users
will have the ability to Escape out of the slide show, since this is a
normal PowerPoint function. You can disable their simply advancing thru
slides (hitting the space bar) by making the PPS a Kiosk presentation. If
you get 100 employees hitting the file at the same time (9am), things may
also get a bit messy. It will also run EVERY time they log in, so if they
are being good little do-bee's and logging out when they step away from
their desk, they will get the messages again when they log back in.
Bill Dilworth
