XP User Account Startup Config

[chaz]

Is there a way to configure which programs start automatically for a
particular user account?
For instance, the Guest account should not start the same apps as the
Admin account.
Please Advise,
chaz

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

You can directly edit the Registry, moving the items from
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run key to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\.................\Run.

Likewise, you can move items from the Startup folder
(%USERPROFILE%\Startup\Programs\Startup) to the other profile.

To do the Registry edit, Export the HKLM\...\Run key, make a copy of the
resulting REG file, right-click the new REG file and Edit, then replace
instances of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (for the items you want to change) with
HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Then Merge the resulting REG file. Finally, go back to
the Registry and delete the changed items from the HKLM section. Keep the
original REG file intact so you can re-merge it if something goes wrong.

Now, restart and test.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

I should note that you need to be logged on to the target user for this to
work.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

Amendment: For the Startup Folder, what you want to do is move the shortcut
from ...\Documents and Settings\All Users\...\Startup to the Profile(s) you
want to have the item start in.

 

[chaz]

Amendment: For the Startup Folder, what you want to do is move the shortcut
from ...\Documents and Settings\All Users\...\Startup to the Profile(s) you
want to have the item start in.

Gary,
Very Interesting... From your comments I'm getting the following
picture:
When I'm logged in as Guest, I can edit the registry entries that
pertain to the Guest account via the CURRENT_USER key.
Would it be fair to say that anything other than CURRENT_USER would
have to be modified by the admin account?

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

In the Guest account, you can edit HKEY_CURRENT_USER, but you cannot edit
any other part of the Registry. Personally, I wouldn't use the Guest
account, I'd create a new one, give it admin permissions to start, go there
and set it up the way you want, then go back to your own admin account and
set restrictions.

I forgot one aspect of this procedure: The HKLM...\Run key is for All Users.
If you delete an item there, in order for other users to have it run, you
need to add it to each user's HKCU section. Add them to all of the users
before deleting from HKLM.

I also need to amend another thing. I'm used to REGEDIT 4 and forgot that in
REGEDIT 5 you can change the key name on one line, it isn't repeated with
each line item like in REGEDIT 4. So what you do is change that one line to
HKCU, then delete any lines for items you DON'T want moved. Also in WinXP,
there are sub-keys to the Run key, and you don't want those added to HKCU.
Delete those lines from the REG file.

Make sure that when you finish there is a blank line at the bottom. After
the last line of type, there should be TWO carriage returns. Also, make sure
that Notepad's Word Wrap is turned off and that you maximize the window so
that lines don't wrap. If not, you may not delete the whole line.