New Domain User Policies

[DaveP]

We are doing a forced migration from 2003 to 2008. I am having trouble getting my test user to see:

My Documents
Redirected Desktop
Redirected Start Menu

This, it would seem, is just the start of my problems. However if anyone can give me some basic pointers as to how to go about this I would be grateful. Everything I have tried today has fallen flat.

Thanks.

[button_ripple]

Same thing happening here!

[DaveP]

Same thing happening here!

Rather worrying don't you think? I have less two weeks to get the new network up and running!

[kesomir]

My new equipment will probably arrive in a couple of weeks lol

and I have to do the same thing.

Here's to you chaps posting the solution before then :P

[FN-GM]

I have done a migration from server 2003 to 2008 and not encountered this. Don't use redirected desktop so i can tell you about that one.

z

[DaveP]

OK I now have the desktop redirecting as required. I don't know how I did it though as I just kept looking at it to check for errors and re-applying the same settings. Somehow they suddenly took [?]

Checking the Start Menu settings in the same way as above does not make redirection for Start Menu to work.

Any ideas?

[kesomir]

do you use gpupdate to refresh a client for testing or was this a GP propogation issue?

[DaveP]

do you use gpupdate to refresh a client for testing or was this a GP propogation issue?

I did use 'gpupdate /force' to push through the changes each time I looked at AD. It is not a propogation issue as there is only one domain controller for these users. I also restarted the station before logging on as the test user and waited the obligatory 12 minutes [My technician found a website stating we should wait 12 mins before testing any changes]

To recap: No change from the last post: Desktop redirection IS working and Start Menu is NOT working.

[DaveP]

I may have made some progress: I think it might be linked to 'Classic Start Menu'

When I set the Force Classic Start Menu in AD [User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Start Menu And Taskbar] the folders and shortcuts come from the SYSVOL share. Great!

However when a folder in the Start Menu is double clicked it opens a folderview of the shortcuts for the local station which is navigable around the whole of the C:\ drive. Not so great. I now want to set the properties such that evenm if the student does double click the folder as presented in the Student Start menu it does not point back to the C:\ drive but does point to SYSVOL.

[DaveP]

After my last post I have made some progress today through experimentation and gradual change. I am not a school now so I can’t provide screenshots of the processes I describe and I have to detail the steps from memory and so what I enter here may not be 100% accurate. I will try to update with more information tomorrow.

Please do not try this if you are unsure: This is just what appears to work for me at the moment and this is not the end of the process as I have not even touched the rest of the network [security/application behaviour/...]

Force Classic Start Menu: This appeared to help but allowed certain items that I did not want the students to see in the Start Menu to be displayed [All Users/Games, All Users Administration Tools/...] I have solved this on one station by hiding the offending items but this means that I have to collect another Ghost image before I can be happy with the solution [also it is less flexible than finding a solution which will work without being ‘bodged’]

I shall describe, the best I can, what I am going to try tomorrow.

1. Sysprep a station to clean out any network history [recently used files, network browsing, favourites...]

2. Logon to the station locally as the administrator.

3. In the Taskbar menu set the options the way you would like them to be displayed when student log on to the domain [this might be overkill because AD might take care of this part]

4. Above All Programs on the Start Menu right click each item and select Remove From This List [if you do not want the selected item to appear]

5. At the All Programs level of the Start Menu select each item in turn and delete it [including the items at the top: Windows Update, Set program Access Defaults, Windows Catalog,...]

6. Customise the Start Menu to show Classic Start Menu and remove ALL items you do not want your student to see in that menu. Click the Advanced button to check the contents through that route. Click Sort if you want your final SYSVOL student menu to be sorted [I think?] Click Clear to empty the Recycle Bin. Select items to be displayed using the tick boxes in Advanced Start Menu Options [this again could be overkill, but after the week I have had I am going to take no chances!]

Now with an empty All Programs Start Menu copy the preferences to the server as follows:

7. Right click My Computer.

8. Select the Advanced tab and in the User Profiles pane click Settings.

9. You may have to create a second administrator user with a completely different name and logon as that new user to do this. Select the user profile that has just been changed and click Copy To.

10. In the Copy Profile To box enter the SYSVOL share where your student profile will sit.

There is more after this but I can’t remember the rest. It should become clear once you have got this far. If not I am going to try to update this post tomorrow. Sorry it is such a long post and so incomplete but I thought it might be useful to let you know whatever hopefully useful] progress I had made today.

Good luck.

[DaveP]

Disaster! I came in this morning to check on progress and without making any changes since yesterday I find that the Desktop and Start Menu are inaccessible to the test user. Also logon is much slower than yesterday.

Edit: There was something wrong with the GPO I set up yesterday. I deleted it and everything sprang back into place [without the test user logging off except of course now I have lost all of the progress I made yesterday]

[azrael78]

I don't know about 2008 (as I've not had a proper play yet) but in 2003 GPO you have options to force classic start menu, you can also hide the 'all users' stuff via GPO too.

As for the double clicking, we got rid of that here but I can't tell you how because to be honest - I can't recall.

However I'm now keen to upgrade to 2008 just to see if our setup will hold or whether it will be a huge job to re-jig it.

Az

[DaveP]

Hi all,

I am pleased to let you know that we have cracked the Start Menu/Desktop redirection problem. It is working just as desired now. I have attached the report from Active Directory showing the settings which make to work for us. It is a work in progress as I have finalised a lot of settings, so this is just a snapshot of how our Students GP looks now.

I must thank my technician here as without her patience and help I would not have made it this far [I think I might even have gone mad: Until today I seemed to be going round in circles the whole holiday]

I would like to resolve why when my test user deletes an item from My Documents it does not go into the Recyle Bin: Ideas anyone?

Anyway I hope someone finds the snapshot of our Active Directory of use.

[HodgeHi]

There is a setting in GPO on 2003 that says not to send to recycle bin and delete immediately. Could be that.

[DaveP]

There is a setting in GPO on 2003 that says not to send to recycle bin and delete immediately. Could be that.

This is server 2008. I have looked for a setting like the one you mention but could not find it. I could have missed it....?

Edit: Mapping My Documents in Active Directory [rather than using a script] is working also. :-)