User Profiles theme problem.

[jamin100]

Hi,

I'm having a small issue with some user profiles on my client machines. I'll explain whats happening.

When a user is first set up, they log in and their desktop icons and start menu are pulled from the server (folder redirection set by GP) they then get the normal blue taskbar and green start button.

No here's where i am having the problem. Some users are now getting grey (basic) start menu's and taskbars. Now i know its nothing that they have changed because theu don't have the permission to do so.

Does anyone know hoe i can force them to use XP's default taskbar insted of the classic one?

Thanks

[FN-GM]

what type of profiles do you have?

[Little-Miss]

When i get something like this on our RM network i just reset their profile.

[jamin100]

Roaming.
All the user profiles are stored on the server.

I am also using UHPC clean to make sure that profiles are totally unloaded on the users logoff.

Every term I run delprof on all the machines to de-clutter them.

I only have Windows 2003 servers and Windows XP clients

[jamin100]

When i get something like this on our RM network i just reset their profile.

By reset do you mean delete it from the server so it is recreated and downloaded when a user is logged off again.

Problem is with 500 users i wouldnt necessarly know when its happening.

[FN-GM]

ok so when they first logon i take it they get all there settings from the default profile? does it only happen when they first logon or is it everyone?

ouch 500 users with roaming profiles, have you considered mandatory?

[jamin100]

ok so when they first logon i take it they get all there settings from the default profile? does it only happen when they first logon or is it everyone?

Yeh when they first logon there profile is created in a share on the server. Then each time they logon the profile on the server is downloaded to the local machine.

ouch 500 users with roaming profiles, have you considered mandatory?

What are the advantages?

[FN-GM]

But i mean does this only happen to users who are new or does this happen to the old ones?

With mandatory profiles everyone (or just students) have the same profile so everything looks the same. It also saves clutter on the client machines because the profile is wiped when the machine is shutdown and the server because you will only have one profile stored appose to hundreds. Plus you won’t get this problem because no changes will be made to the master profile on the server. Check the wiki for more details

[powdarrmonkey]

You can set the Luna (blue and green) theme to be applied to everyone using group policy, under User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Control Panel/Display/Desktop Themes. For Luna, the Path To Visual Style setting should be:

%windir%\resources\Themes\Luna\Luna.msstyles

What are the advantages? [of mandatory profiles]

Your users' profile, and any changes made to it, are discarded at the end of their session. Users will always start off with your defined environment at login time. Commonly used to provide a consistent environment with no maintenance.

[powdarrmonkey]

Sorry Zak, didn't mean to jump in

[FN-GM]

You can set the Luna (blue and green) theme to be applied to everyone using group policy, under User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Control Panel/Display/Desktop Themes. For Luna, the Path To Visual Style setting should be:

%windir%\resources\Themes\Luna\Luna.msstyles

I think it’s a corrupt profile as a result of this the themes mess up so in this case this will not work.

Sorry Zak, didn't mean to jump in

lol its normally me doing that

[jamin100]

It sounds like mandatory profiles are the way to go then.

To be honest neither staff or students can make any changes to their profiles as they are because all the desktop and start menu icons are located as a read only share on the server and they really cant make any changes anywhere else.

The only changes i can see them making are moving the position of the toolbars in Word etc and they will have done that by mistake anyway..

So how easy is it to create mandatory profiles for all users. I have 3 usergroups.

Students
Staff
MIS staff

I'm guessing i'd have to create a profile for each set of users...

Also, would the profile be stored on the local machines or would it be pulled from the server every time a user logs on. I only ask as we have 60 wireless laptops and logons can be slow so would like to be able to reduce that also if possible

[powdarrmonkey]

[hijack]
Glad it's not just me on here at this time of night
[/hijack]

[FN-GM]

You can make them all have one profile. Once you know how to make them they are a doddle. You can choose to have them download off the server each time or you can make a script that will store the profile locally.

[powdarrmonkey]

All you need to do is set up a profile how you like it, and then change ntuser.dat (the user registry) to ntuser.man in the profile. That causes Windows to discard it at logoff.

Keep it lean, it will normally come down each time a user logs in. Ours are about 700K I think - I pruned them *really* hard.