Unlock Profile to change settings?

[billyf]

Im a techy working at a school. ATM all pupils use a student profile that's identical. The one problem we have though is that whenever a user logs in and uses a program such as MS Word it goes to default and always askes them about installing updates. Another is we want certain software they use to not auto update, we can turn this off however as the pupil profile defaults these settings the programs still check for updates.

 

Moving on i have been told there's a way to unlock the profile, then log into a PC as a student and change these settings. Once done i log off and lock the profile again. This then sets the settings for all students? Any help in pointing me in the right direction? Thanks

[LeMarchand]

You can turn off the Office first run thing by GPO (and set the name etc by adding in some registry values). What's the other program?

[Ephelyon]

You need to rename the ntuser.man file in the central profile to ntuser.dat, then log on, make changes and log off, then rename it back. You should only do it at a time when you can guarantee nobody else will be logging on using this profile.

[billyf]

Ahh thats sounds about right. Would the ntuser.man be locked withing the profile folder on the server? This is where i have first looked and can only see a ntuser.ini ?

[Ephelyon]

Turn on View Hidden Files.

[billyf]

Yes this is what i have done. i can see the ntuser.dat files on all of the old unused profiles. However the one that is now in use only shows ntuser.ini

[computer_expert]

I think ntuser.dat/.man is a system file (the option to view system files is in the same place as where you turn on/off the option to show file extensions)

 

You can also use Group Policy Preferences to push out reg changes too.

[billyf]

Thats worked. Thanks alot guys

[billyf]

OK so I've ran into another problem. This morning i attempted to do this. I changed the ntuser.man to ntuser.dat i then logged into a student profile changed the settings i wanted. However when i logged out it came up with "Roaming profile did not completely synchronize" or around those lines. Thought this may be common so once i changed the file back to ntuser.man i tried logging in as a pupil and didn't work. I'm suspecting its not worked due to this synchronization message? anyone got any ideas?