Wallpaper & Screensaver distribution to XP clients?

[Barkley Bees]

We just went through a corporate "rebranding" that resulted in our logo
being redone. As such, we now have new wallpapers and screensavers to deploy
to all our internal XP client PC's. Both the wallpapers and screensavers
have been created in 3 resolutions (1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024).

Can anyone recommend the best way to distribute these to all existing
clients (we will create a new image with this branding already included for
new PC's) with the below points in mind:

Both:
1 - how to get the wallpaper and screensaver files to the client PC's
C:\WINDOWS dir (SMS 2003, Group policy, logon script, etc?).
2 - how to ensure that the clients are set to use the best suited resolution
of the 3 wallpapers/screensavers to match their desktop settings (SMS 2003
can detect what the desktop resolution settings are for each system).

Wallpapers:
1 - how to set the wallpaper position to be "center" (not stretch or tile
and the background color).

Screensavers
1 - how to set the screensaver settings to wait 15 minutes and require
password authentication on resume (Group Policy?).

Appreciate any advice or feedback on this. Thank you.

 

[Matthew Hudson]

Here is half your answer

http://sms-hints-tricks.blogspot.com/2007/03/logged-out-background-and-screen-saver.html

Basically you can do it all through registry changes. You could create
everything on a test machine and then export the desktop / Screen saver
settings and then deploy through SMS.

Here you will find the screen saver setting and how we modifed the opening
windows splash screen.

 

[Barkley Bees]

I have opted to skip trying to get the resolutions to match the client
settings as I think this will not be possible. I have instead opted to set
all clients to 1024x768 for their default wallpaper and screensaver. They
can change it accordingly on their own afterward.

That said, I'm still stuck on how to get the files *.bmp and *.scr to all
clients and how to make the necessary registry changes. I obviously want to
ensure that all clients have the necessary files before the registry changes
take effect so I am wondering if "SMS Installer" may be the best route for
this? I have yet to use this tool but I understand it can create installer
packages to install files and make registry changes. Can anyone recommend
one way or the other? Thanks.

 

[Matthew Hudson]

We have a package that has a cmd file. It runs the "regedit /s xxx.reg"
files and "copy xxx.bmp" to the locations then on their next restart all
these settings will be invoked.

 

[Barkley Bees]

Thanks for the info Matthew. Could you provide a little more detail on how
you did this? What would happen in the instance that the copy *.bmp portion
fails but the registry setting is successful? We have 4 separate bitmaps and
3 screensavers (different resolutions. ~15MB in total) to the client PC's.

 

[Matthew Hudson]

Since we watch for it via the inventory SMS would retry to copy it again and
again until it worked. If it does fail and the screensaver needs it then you
will have a black screen saver with the words "C:\xxx\xx\xx\xx\xx.bmp not
found" floatingo on the screen. The background would go back since there is
no file to be found. It will not crash the machine but the user will know.
We found several profile issues when we did it. People would have
userid.temp and since we modified their registry they couldn't see the new
files. This was good for us because now the user could let us know if
something with their profile was wrong.

Is this what you were wondering?

 

[Barkley Bees]

Yes, that's more or less what I was wondering. Hrmm....I'm looking at ~1200
desktops here so I may have to rethink this as it could get rather messy.
When you did this, did you also make the changes for the "Default User" (not
HK_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop\Wallpaper of course) so that any new
users logging on to the machine would have this pre-set? Or did you have the
SMS package set to run for each user who logs on to a machine? Do you have
anymore detail on how to do this at your blog (not that I could see)? Sorry
for all the questions!

 

[Matthew Hudson]

Since we create that special folder for pictures we run the adv for each
person that logs in. Since it takes no more than 20 seconds to run the user
never knows it is going on.

I never thought about modifying the "default user" but that would make some
things easier to do. The only I didn't add was the user reg file and how to
create that scr file but there are many webpages that can do it. I tested it
for about a week before deploying it out to all my desktops.

 

[Blake]

We just went through a corporate "rebranding" that resulted in our logo
being redone. As such, we now have new wallpapers and screensavers to deploy
to all our internal XP client PC's. Both the wallpapers and screensavers
have been created in 3 resolutions (1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024).

Can anyone recommend the best way to distribute these to all existing
clients (we will create a new image with this branding already included for
new PC's) with the below points in mind:

Both:
1 - how to get the wallpaper and screensaver files to the client PC's
C:\WINDOWS dir (SMS 2003, Group policy, logon script, etc?).
2 - how to ensure that the clients are set to use the best suited resolution
of the 3 wallpapers/screensavers to match their desktop settings (SMS 2003
can detect what the desktop resolution settings are for each system).

Wallpapers:
1 - how to set the wallpaper position to be "center" (not stretch or tile
and the background color).

Screensavers
1 - how to set the screensaver settings to wait 15 minutes and require
password authentication on resume (Group Policy?).

Appreciate any advice or feedback on this. Thank you.

I'm more of a fan of MSI based installers, so if I were faced with
this request I would just create an MSI package complete with a
Program Files entry and version numbering. That way, if I ever need
to go back and repeat this process, I just make the adjustments on a
virtual PC and then create and updated MSI package. I can include all
the registry information and the wallpaper in the same installer. I
would recommend you look at the FlexNet AdminStudio SMS Edition* over
the SMS Installer if you don’t already have a tool that you like.
(*FREE download from Microsoft http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sms/bb676775.aspx)

My process:
- On a clean Virtual PC (VPC) I would run the AdminStudio to get the
initial snapshot (the "before")
- Then make the registry, screen saver, and wallpaper adjustments and
then take the second snapshot (the "after"). DO NOT FORGET to create a
"Program Files\Whatever you want to call it" folder where you can
store the extra copy of the wallpaper, screensaver, and registry
information. I do this so that I don’t accidentally leave behind a
Program Files\My Company folder after the install.
- Once I have the raw MSI package I clean out the unneeded files using
Adminstudio and then finally compile the MSI
- After I undo the changes I made to the VPC I run the MSI on it and
check my work. If all goes well, we roll it out to pilot and then
onto production.

It works for me and makes it easy to distribute and track thanks to it
being wrapped in an MSI.

 

[Barkley Bees]

Brilliant Blake! Thank you so very much for the pointer. This is what I was
hoping for, a good packaging solution! I downloaded Adminstudio 7.5 as per
the link you provided but sadly they don't offer the activation key anymore
for the 7.5 SMS edition as it is discontinued =(. None the less, I believe I
only require the Repackager portion to do this (right?).

I am just testing it out now but one thing I noticed right off the bat when
doing a snapshot differential, it doesn't seem to pick up registry changes
made in "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT". After the first try when it didn't work, I
thought perhaps I needed a reboot inbetween when the change was made and
when the differential was taken but alas it made no difference.

In addition to the screensaver and wallpaper change I am trying to change
the Wallpaper value under HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel...." as it
changes the wallpaper that is displayed when the computer is in a logged out
state. Were you able to get it to capture this by some means?.

We just went through a corporate "rebranding" that resulted in our logo
being redone. As such, we now have new wallpapers and screensavers to
deploy
to all our internal XP client PC's. Both the wallpapers and screensavers
have been created in 3 resolutions (1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024).

Can anyone recommend the best way to distribute these to all existing
clients (we will create a new image with this branding already included
for
new PC's) with the below points in mind:

Both:
1 - how to get the wallpaper and screensaver files to the client PC's
C:\WINDOWS dir (SMS 2003, Group policy, logon script, etc?).
2 - how to ensure that the clients are set to use the best suited
resolution
of the 3 wallpapers/screensavers to match their desktop settings (SMS 2003
can detect what the desktop resolution settings are for each system).

Wallpapers:
1 - how to set the wallpaper position to be "center" (not stretch or tile
and the background color).

Screensavers
1 - how to set the screensaver settings to wait 15 minutes and require
password authentication on resume (Group Policy?).

Appreciate any advice or feedback on this. Thank you.

I'm more of a fan of MSI based installers, so if I were faced with
this request I would just create an MSI package complete with a
Program Files entry and version numbering. That way, if I ever need
to go back and repeat this process, I just make the adjustments on a
virtual PC and then create and updated MSI package. I can include all
the registry information and the wallpaper in the same installer. I
would recommend you look at the FlexNet AdminStudio SMS Edition* over
the SMS Installer if you don’t already have a tool that you like.
(*FREE download from Microsoft
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sms/bb676775.aspx)

My process:
- On a clean Virtual PC (VPC) I would run the AdminStudio to get the
initial snapshot (the "before")
- Then make the registry, screen saver, and wallpaper adjustments and
then take the second snapshot (the "after"). DO NOT FORGET to create a
"Program Files\Whatever you want to call it" folder where you can
store the extra copy of the wallpaper, screensaver, and registry
information. I do this so that I don’t accidentally leave behind a
Program Files\My Company folder after the install.
- Once I have the raw MSI package I clean out the unneeded files using
Adminstudio and then finally compile the MSI
- After I undo the changes I made to the VPC I run the MSI on it and
check my work. If all goes well, we roll it out to pilot and then
onto production.

It works for me and makes it easy to distribute and track thanks to it
being wrapped in an MSI.

 

[Blake]

Brilliant Blake! Thank you so very much for the pointer. This is what I was
hoping for, a good packaging solution! I downloaded Adminstudio 7.5 as per
the link you provided but sadly they don't offer the activation key anymore
for the 7.5 SMS edition as it is discontinued =(. None the less, I believe I
only require the Repackager portion to do this (right?).

I am just testing it out now but one thing I noticed right off the bat when
doing a snapshot differential, it doesn't seem to pick up registry changes
made in "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT". After the first try when it didn't work, I
thought perhaps I needed a reboot inbetween when the change was made and
when the differential was taken but alas it made no difference.

In addition to the screensaver and wallpaper change I am trying to change
the Wallpaper value under HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel...." as it
changes the wallpaper that is displayed when the computer is in a logged out
state. Were you able to get it to capture this by some means?.









I'm more of a fan of MSI based installers, so if I were faced with
this request I would just create an MSI package complete with a
Program Files entry and version numbering.  That way, if I ever need
to go back and repeat this process, I just make the adjustments on a
virtual PC and then create and updated MSI package.  I can include all
the registry information and the wallpaper in the same installer.  I
would recommend you look at the FlexNet AdminStudio SMS Edition* over
the SMS Installer if you don’t already have a tool that you like.
(*FREE download from Microsofthttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sms/bb676775.aspx)

My process:
 - On a clean Virtual PC (VPC) I would run the AdminStudio to get the
initial snapshot (the "before")
- Then make the registry, screen saver, and wallpaper adjustments and
then take the second snapshot (the "after"). DO NOT FORGET to create a
"Program Files\Whatever you want to call it" folder where you can
store the extra copy of the wallpaper, screensaver, and registry
information.  I do this so that I don’t accidentally leave behind a
Program Files\My Company folder after the install.
- Once I have the raw MSI package I clean out the unneeded files using
Adminstudio and then finally compile the MSI
- After I undo the changes I made to the VPC I run the MSI on it and
check my work.  If all goes well, we roll it out to pilot and then
onto production.

It works for me and makes it easy to distribute and track thanks to it
being wrapped in an MSI.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I'll need to setup my VPC and try to emmulate what you are doing and
see for sure. I think you may be pointing out the flaw in my plan; I
dont think you can edit HKCU or HCU using AdminStudio, but I'll need
to find out for sure. Once I get a chance to test it out I'll let you
know.

 

[Blake]

I'll need to setup my VPC and try to emmulate what you are doing and
see for sure.  I think you may be pointing out the flaw in my plan; I
dont think you can edit HKCU or HCU using AdminStudio, but I'll need
to find out for sure.  Once I get a chance to test it out I'll let you
know.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Barkley,

Sorry it took me a while to get back to you, it seems every time I
tried to setup my VPC to test this I got side tracked with work of all
things. I did get a chance to try to test this out and you are right,
it doesnt capture HKU\Default. It does capture HKCU though, so
perhaps if you use SMS or something similar you can setup a job to run
this as a per-user MSI installation? That may be setting you up for
more trouble down the road though, but it may be worth testing out.

I wonder what would happen if you just changed the file name of the
wallpaper and the screensaver to match the file names of the existing
wallpaper/screen saver on the PC and have the package overwrite the
originals with your branded files? If your wallpaper is just %APPDATA%
\Microsoft\Wallpaper\Wallpaper1.bmp and your screen saver is logon.scr
you may be able to overwrite them with your own. I dont think they
are considered protected files, so it may be worth a shot if they
system doesnt block the changes.

Make sense? Hope so!

 

[Barkley Bees]

I'll need to setup my VPC and try to emmulate what you are doing and
see for sure. I think you may be pointing out the flaw in my plan; I
dont think you can edit HKCU or HCU using AdminStudio, but I'll need
to find out for sure. Once I get a chance to test it out I'll let you
know.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Barkley,

Sorry it took me a while to get back to you, it seems every time I
tried to setup my VPC to test this I got side tracked with work of all
things. I did get a chance to try to test this out and you are right,
it doesnt capture HKU\Default. It does capture HKCU though, so
perhaps if you use SMS or something similar you can setup a job to run
this as a per-user MSI installation? That may be setting you up for
more trouble down the road though, but it may be worth testing out.

I wonder what would happen if you just changed the file name of the
wallpaper and the screensaver to match the file names of the existing
wallpaper/screen saver on the PC and have the package overwrite the
originals with your branded files? If your wallpaper is just %APPDATA%
\Microsoft\Wallpaper\Wallpaper1.bmp and your screen saver is logon.scr
you may be able to overwrite them with your own. I dont think they
are considered protected files, so it may be worth a shot if they
system doesnt block the changes.

Make sense? Hope so!

Thank you for the update Blake. I had toyed around with several options to
try and get this working with Repackager but to no avail so I did some
searching around and found another freeware MSI packager:
http://www.advancedinstaller.com. So far, in my initial testing, it seems to
do the trick. It does allow you to add in the the keys for HKU\.DEFAULT
among others and appears to work like a charm from my first try. The tool
doesn't appaer to do a differential capture like the repackager tool but
instead allows you to manually add files and registry settings.

 

[Barkley Bees]

Thank you for the update Blake. I had toyed around with several options to
try and get this working with Repackager but to no avail so I did some
searching around and found another freeware MSI packager:
http://www.advancedinstaller.com. So far, in my initial testing, it seems
to do the trick. It does allow you to add in the the keys for HKU\.DEFAULT
among others and appears to work like a charm from my first try. The tool
doesn't appaer to do a differential capture like the repackager tool but
instead allows you to manually add files and registry settings.

Again a big thanks for the advice. Advanced installer appears to have worked
well for us in this regard.
I have a follow up question, if I may. I have the SMS package run to install
for every computer in the collection which is fine but it leaves a few
problems:

1. When a new user logs on to the system they get the settings from the
"C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\NTUSER.DAT" which is not configured
to have the specified wallpaper&screensaver set.
2. Users who have profiles on computers that received the package when
another user was logged on will not have the wallpaper&screensaver set.

I had considered setting the SMS package to run for each user as opposed to
once for every computer to resolve this but it would get messy in the
Add/Remove Programs as it appears for every user. Can anyone recommend a
good way to ensure that all new users logging on will get this set as well?
Perhaps via a logon/startup script (since the files will already be on the
local PC from the SMS package) or maybe that would not be a good idea?