Woody said:
Hi,
As an administrator, I login to hundreds of PCs and I want
my "Folder Options" settings to follow me without using
roaming profiles. Most are available as registry settings
but some are not. How can I set the following at login
via a script or Group Policy?
1. Details (as opposed to large, small, list or thumbnails)
2. Double click to open an item
3. "Like current folder" (use same view for all folders)
Thanks,
Woody
This isn't as easy as it would seem. The data is all stored in the
registry, but not in their own values, some are stored along with other
settings in streams or bitmasks.
For example, your single-click vs. double-click preference is stored here,
along with other settings:
Key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
Value: ShellState
Type: REG_BINARY
So you could save this value from one machine, and apply it to all other
machines you log into via Regedit.exe /s, or Reg.exe, or VBScript, KiXtart,
etc.
The "Details" view and "Like Current Folder" are not so simple. Each
folder's view is stored in a "stream", located here:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\
This is a total hack, and I don't know if there is a better/documented way
to do this, but at high level this is what you need to do:
1. Enumerate each subkey under this registry tree:
Key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\
2. Delete every subkey that is a number, or not named "Defaults" or
"Desktop"
3. Create this registry value, set to the value from a machine you have
setup the way you like:
Key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\
Value: Settings
Type: REG_BINARY
I hope this makes sense, it's been a while since I did this but this should
give you an idea. Hopefully someone knows of a better way.
