Roaming Profile "Modified Theme" behaviour

[Jeremy]

Hi All,

We've created a customised theme for our desktop called
Corporate.Theme which is basically a copy of Luna.Theme
without the wallpaper. This works fine and is the
default theme when a new user profile is created *EXCEPT*
when the new profile is a roaming profile. Then the user
gets a "Modified Theme".

This appears to be behaviour by design to give a
more "compatible" roaming profile.

I don't want this to happen. All of our machines are
Windows XP and we want the Luna style to be the default,
but also want to use roaming profiles.

I don't want to use a Domain Profile which is a copy of
an existing profile.

I've managed to get it to return to a semblance of the
proper theme by copying in sections of my profile into
the default user profile, namely:

HKCU\SW\MS\WIN\CV\Themes
HKCU\SW\MS\WIN\CV\Theme Manager
HKCU\CP\Colors

This results in a "Modified Theme" that looks more like
Luna.Theme.

Is there any way to effect this behaviour? Rather than
doing all these unsightly reg mods....

Cheers,
Jeremy.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

We've created a customised theme for our desktop called
Corporate.Theme which is basically a copy of Luna.Theme
without the wallpaper. This works fine and is the
default theme when a new user profile is created *EXCEPT*
when the new profile is a roaming profile. Then the user
gets a "Modified Theme".

This appears to be behaviour by design to give a
more "compatible" roaming profile.

I don't want this to happen. All of our machines are
Windows XP and we want the Luna style to be the default,
but also want to use roaming profiles.

I don't want to use a Domain Profile which is a copy of
an existing profile.

I've managed to get it to return to a semblance of the
proper theme by copying in sections of my profile into
the default user profile, namely:

HKCU\SW\MS\WIN\CV\Themes
HKCU\SW\MS\WIN\CV\Theme Manager
HKCU\CP\Colors

This results in a "Modified Theme" that looks more like
Luna.Theme.

Is there any way to effect this behaviour? Rather than
doing all these unsightly reg mods....

Are you saying you DON'T want to use the built in functionality a Default
User profile would give you? (Yes, if you put a Default User profile in the
Netlogon share, all your new roaming profiles get this profile when they
start - allowing you to customize just about everything.)

Or you could use a group policy to do it.

 

[Guest]

Yes. I don't want to use the domain profile. I don't
like the idea of creating a profile from the default
customising it and leaving a bunch of paths in it that
point to another profile directory. It is not as "clean"
as the built-in user profile and I have had problems
caused by it in the past. Even thought it is a MS
prescribed way of doing it I don't like it. I'd prefer
to identify all of the specific areas that I want to
change and change ONLY them. That way I know exactly
what I am going to get.

How can I use group policy to prevent the "compatible"
profile from being created?

 

[Guest]

Yes. I don't want to use the domain profile. I don't
like the idea of creating a profile from the default
customising it and leaving a bunch of paths in it that
point to another profile directory. It is not as "clean"
as the built-in user profile and I have had problems
caused by it in the past. Even thought it is a MS
prescribed way of doing it I don't like it. I'd prefer
to identify all of the specific areas that I want to
change and change ONLY them. That way I know exactly
what I am going to get.

How can I use group policy to prevent the "compatible"
profile from being created?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Yes. I don't want to use the domain profile. I don't
like the idea of creating a profile from the default
customising it and leaving a bunch of paths in it that
point to another profile directory. It is not as "clean"
as the built-in user profile and I have had problems
caused by it in the past. Even thought it is a MS
prescribed way of doing it I don't like it. I'd prefer
to identify all of the specific areas that I want to
change and change ONLY them. That way I know exactly
what I am going to get.

How can I use group policy to prevent the "compatible"
profile from being created?

Strange.. Works with 1500 compuers, 40,000 users and 150 different programs
(updated 3 times a year) for me.. But okay..

You are thinking of group policy all backwards.. You can apply the registry
entries you need to make to each user via group policies.. Youu aren't
preventing anything, just changing things to the way you want them. =)

You could do this in the logon script or you might be able to find the exact
GPO you need to set for every user logging into your domain.