redirect startmenu locally- access denied

[rocknrollstar]

Hi, I am aiming to redirect the start menu and desktop to the local machine on our win2k server/xp pro client network. I have written a script that creates directories on the c: drive and copies the shortcut icons from the server. The script is called from the user logon batch file.

It works fine when logging in as an administrator, but not as a student user. When it comes to do the copying, I get access denied. I take it this is because the logon script is run with the student user privilages, which doesn't allow writing to the c-drive.

But how do I let the student user run this part of the script? The icons may change at anytime, and I need to make sure that each time the user logs in, they get the latest version of the startmenu/desktop. I don't really want to restart the computer for this to happen. Can I change the permission on the local shortcut folder easily and at runtime of the script?

Below is the jist of the script (called seperately by logon.bat). Many thanks.

rem rsync script to update local version of shorcuts folder

rem create dir structure
md c:\shortcuts
md c:\shortcuts\studentstartmenu
md c:\shortcuts\studentsdesktop

Rem rsync studentstartmenu
\\server\netlogon\robocopy.exe \\server\users\studentstartmenu c:\shortcuts\studentstartmenu /MIR

Rem rsync studentstartmenu
\\server\netlogon\robocopy.exe \\server\users\studentsdesktop c:\shortcuts\studentsdesktop /MIR

\\server\netlogon\robocopy.exe \\server\Netlogon c:\shortcuts Bginfo.exe
\\server\netlogon\robocopy.exe \\server\Netlogon c:\shortcuts\ bginfo.bgi

[ssiruuk2]

Do that as a machine startup script - there's not any other way around it as your going to have to give the student group write access into the start menu directory on the local disk otherwise.

Start Menus dont change that often do they (?!) so shouldnt be a problem

Just out of interest, why haven't you redirected to a network share?

[rocknrollstar]

Thanks for your help on this. I've read quite a few threads on this site, and one view is that local redirects are good because if the network goes down, the icons are still available. Also, when a user clicks on the start menu, windows does a scan of all the icons available. If it's on the network, then it scans the network share for the redirect folder icons. Lots of users at once gives the server a hit, and particularly on wireless, seems unneccesary.

Anyway, thanks again- I'll add the script to a gpo startup script-- I take it this should be under the user section in the gpo, not the computer section? This way the script would run each time the user logs in?

Cheers.

[ssiruuk2]

No probs.

You need to link a GPO to the OU where your computer accounts are located in AD - and its applied under computer configuration for start up scripts, user configuration is for login scripts which is what you dont want here.

A startup script is literally that.. it runs when the machine boots up to the login screen. So it will refresh your start menu / desktop icons each time its rebooted. Refreshing them each login seems a bit overkill to me!

Cheers

[FN-GM]

I agree a startup script is the way to go here.

[rocknrollstar]

Thanks for your help. I've set the script to copy the shortcuts in the computer startup script section in the students gpo, and they appear ok.

However, on a few computers, when I log in as a student, the desktop/startmenu icons don't show up. The icons are on the local machine, but it doesn't seem as though the redirection is working? All I can see on the desktop is My Computer, My Docs and the IE icon. No wallpaper. However the My docs redirection is working, as well as other GPO settings. Just not the desktop/startmenu redirection.

On most computers this works fine. I've tried bombprof on the student profiles, and rebooting several times.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.