Installing/Copying Fonts from Login Script

[mattpant]

Hi Guys,

Somebody has asked me to install a new font on the machines in the IT Rooms called "Mr Robo Funk" to allow them to create basic animations of a Robot Dancing.

I put the font in the Netlogon folder of the server and added a line in the logon script to copy the file to C:\Windows\Fonts automatically so I don't have to go around every PC! This works fine when a admin logs into the computers, but when the pupils log on, the file is copied across as they don't have permission to write to the C:\Windows\fonts folder (Or any other on the C Drive)

Is there an easy way around this so the font can be installed quickly and easily by login/startup script and permission not being a problem?

Regards,

Matt

[DMcCoy]

can't you run it as a startup script? It will then do the copy as system (I think).

[NetworkGeezer]

can't you run it as a startup script? It will then do the copy as system (I think).

Yeah but you will have to make the computer accounts part of domain users group or else they won't be able to access the share.

Another alternative might be to roll your own MSI.

[DMcCoy]

just create a new share with read permissions for domain computers.

[apeo]

Ok here is what i had to do to get font installation to work:

Create a bat file that like this:

copy \\server\Font\fontfile_.TTF %systemroot%\fonts
regedit /s \\server\font\instfont.reg

The above will copy the copy the font to the font folder and run a install reg file. As far as i know when it comes to using a startup scripts and network share you need only make sure that the system account has permissions to that share, you only have a problem when going cross domains.. then you can create a mapped drive during startup or something like that.

The reg file is below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
"The name of the Font (TrueType)"="fontfile_.TTF"

The above reg file is used to ensure that your new font is visible ie if you load up word or something and look in the fonts available its there.

Hope that helps.

[mattpant]

Thanks... will give that ago.


@DMcCoy... When the pupils logon... they are able to see the folder where the font is OK, as that folder has the correct permissions, it's just they don't have the permissions to copy it into the Font's folder on the local Hard Drive.

I thought startup scripts were 'spose to work regardless of who logs in, but when I created the startup script with the command in it, it seem to run after somebody had logged in with the same results.

Is the startup script 'spose to run before you get the Logon Box?

Regards,

Matt

[apeo]

By the way my script runs as computer startup script and not a user startup script.

[DMcCoy]

Thanks... will give that ago.


@DMcCoy... When the pupils logon... they are able to see the folder where the font is OK, as that folder has the correct permissions, it's just they don't have the permissions to copy it into the Font's folder on the local Hard Drive.

I thought startup scripts were 'spose to work regardless of who logs in, but when I created the startup script with the command in it, it seem to run after somebody had logged in with the same results.

Is the startup script 'spose to run before you get the Logon Box?

Regards,

Matt

You need to run it from the computer section of the policy.

[Geoff]

If your trying access a share from a startup script you need to allow domain computers access.

If your trying to access a share from a login script you need to allow domain users access.

If your trying to access a share from both a startup and a login script then you need to allow authenticated users instead.

[plexer]

Why not add all the fonts you want to an msi and deploy that to the computers?

Ben

[maximator152]

just put all the fonts you want to install per script into a folder on a accessible share.

then you just launch this short simple vbscript:

install font script

There are many versions out but most of them don't work with windows 7 anymore or you would have to alter the script.

Pretty clean solution...

Cheers