custom pupil menus

[chrbb]

I'm trying to setup a custom start menu for pupils only, is redirected start menu the best way to do it? I use a default profile on the server and run delprof to get rid of local profiles, no roaming or mandatory profiles, just gpo settings to lock things down. I've set policies to take off various things from the start menu but want to get rid of system tools, accessories etc.

[netadmin]

I use redirected start menus. It seems to work well.

To get rid of system tools and accessories folders, I use a vbscript to delete these folders. If you want this vbscript, let me know.

The teachers needed a few shortcuts that got deleted, so I simply added the shortcuts back to the redirected start menu for teachers.

[jamin100]

I use folder redirection in the GPO to redirect the all programs folder to a folder on the server that just holds icons of the programs that i want them to access.

Works really well and is easy to manage.

[chrbb]

I'll have a go tomorrow, do I redirect the whole of the start menu folder or just the programs bit. Sorry I really need a dummy's guide to this. thanks

Clarridentech a copy of script would be much appreciated thanks, do you run it at startup or at logon?

[chrbb]

Right set up a redirected menu but took ages to load and to be active, do you mainly use the orginal program folders or just icons?

[maniac]

I've got a VB script which runs at workstation startup which copies all the shortcuts from the server to the workstation at boot, then my group policy is set to redirect to this local folder containing the shortcuts. This makes the start menu and desktop more reliable, and stops them disappearing on wireless laptops when the wireless disconnects.

It also copies different icons to workstations dependant on the OU the machine is in. That way I can make sure only the music PCs have the music shortcuts, only the Art PCs have the graphics shortcuts etc. so there are no redundant or pointless shortcuts on the start menus or desktops, very neat!

If anyone wants the script, I'll post it up.

Mike.

[chrbb]

Please!

[netadmin]

I'll have a go tomorrow, do I redirect the whole of the start menu folder or just the programs bit. Sorry I really need a dummy's guide to this. thanks

I redirect all folders except the programs folder. I have folder shortcuts for commonly used applications above the all programs link (See attached screenshot), and use the program folder only for locally installed applications (like Photoshop).

I have one start menu for students, one for staff, one for school administrators, then a fourth one for computer administrators. The screenshot shown is the computer administrators start menu.

Clarridentech a copy of script would be much appreciated thanks, do you run it at startup or at logon?

OK, the script should be attached in text format. Just save it as a vbscript and it should run. You may have to modify the list of folders to delete, depending on which applications you have installed on your system.

Right now, I run this script nightly as a scheduled task. I had it as a logon script, but moved it to a nightly scheduled task to speed up the logon process a little.

[chrbb]

Right got redirected start menu and desktop to work, copied the folders to the local machine and redirected to there, logon speeds much quicker.

I've set it for a test user - tried on a laptop and realised it looked rubbish because of different software, for the time being I really only want to use the redirected menus for pupils in the suite and if they use a laptop they will use the standard 'all users' menu. Had a look at loopback and didn't understand what to loop to where!

I have ou with pupils in with policy set for redirecting and the suite computers in an ou, can anyone point in the right way please? Basically to set redirected menu for users of a certain group of computers.

[maniac]

I never did post that script did I.

Anyway here it is, all it does is copy the icons from the netlogon share at machine startup to a folder called c:\settings\students removing the previous copies and overwriting with a fresh copy. If you then point the desktop and startmenu re-direction to the relevant local folders, it stops the machine making requests over the network every time the start menu is used, and also stops laptops loosing their startmenus and desktops when they loose their wireless signal. Any new icons added to the server appear on the machines when they are re-booted, and it works well.

Also as a bonus it reads the machines OU from active directory and copies different icons to the machines depending on what OU they are in, as well as copying a standard set of icons to all machines. I've been using this for a while now, and have had no real problems with it. It really is very simple.

on error resume next

Const OverWriteFiles = True
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
objFSO.DeleteFolder("C:\settings\students")
objFSO.CopyFolder "\\school\netlogon\stupol\Shortcuts\Basic icons" , "C:\settings\students" , OverWriteFiles

Set objWshNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
Set objAdsSystemInfo = CreateObject("adsysteminfo")
Set objComputerName = GetObject("LDAP://" & objAdsSystemInfo.ComputerName)
Set objOU = GetObject(objComputerName.Parent)
strOU = replace(objOU.Name,"OU=","")

Select Case strOU

 Case "103"
objFSO.CopyFolder "\\school\netlogon\stupol\Shortcuts\103" , "C:\settings\students" , OverWriteFiles

 Case "106"
objFSO.CopyFolder "\\school\netlogon\stupol\Shortcuts\106" , "C:\settings\students" , OverWriteFiles

End Select

Just add more case statements for more OUs as necessary.

Hope that helps someone!

Mike