Windows 10 refining and tweaks

[3s-gtech]

Currently working through Windows 10 testing on a VM. Have got the policies and settings in place just about how I want them for staff (local profiles), now starting on students (super mandatory profiles). Wondering if any of you have found solutions to these yet?

 

Start Menu XML from a share isn't applying. Works fine for staff. Is this an issue with mandatory profiles? The tile layout that shows is just the one from the default profile, but I don't think it's stored in there. There is a redirected Start Menu which is working fine, and the items on the Start layout are all in there ready.

 

The Ribbon Bar has some options that do not want to be there (like the Hidden items checkbox), is it possible to implement this in to the HKCU hive? Server 2012 – Ribbon UI: Disable Hidden Items Checkbox | Paper Street Online or via GPP? Don't want to set this policy for all users. Guess I could loopback, but uhgghgh. So, is it possible to customise the Ribbon, and have any of you bothered?

 

I had the broken Search box issue (didn't do anything when clicked on), but I just hid it by setting keys in the mandatory profile (GPP wouldn't do it for some reason). What solutions did you find to actually make it work though?

[3s-gtech]

Fixed the first one - it didn't like the layout GPO I had created being applied to a user OU, so I shoved it on the Computer OU and it worked fine. The exact opposite of how it worked for the teachers

[3s-gtech]

It appears that the broken search box is caused by SearchUI and Cortana crashing on logon, probably due to permissions but I can't work it out as yet. Anyone?

 

EDIT: Mandatory Profiles and Cortana do not play well! Switched to a local profile and it works. That's not going to be fun working out. I suspect if I redirect or point the right location at the redirected AppData (rather than the local mandatory profile) it'll work.

Edited February 8, 2016 by 3s-gtech

[Michael]

As you've found, Start Menu customisation is very inconsistent. I'd suggest you have a good look at Classic Shell which will save you a heap of problems.

[3s-gtech]

Not having any issues with the actual menu or tile layout now, those are working consistently. Bit quirky but manageable.

[LeonC]

I have found a solution to the problem of search not working in build 10240 (RTM) and Cortana not working in 10586 (November 1511 build) when using mandatory profiles on Windows 10. The issue is due to a required permission in the registry hive on the Mandatory profile not being present when you follow the Microsoft instructions to create a Mandatory profile with Sysprep. I got around this by opening the Mandatory profile's NTUSER.DAT hive in reg edit. I then added "Authenticated Users" and most importantly "All App Packages" with full permissions from the root level of the hive. This permission seems to be required to configure the search and Cortana apps when a user log on. Obviously, you still need to change the NTUSER.DAT to NTUSER.MAN before deploying it.

 

Now that I have this working, I am having problems when users log off. The profile isn't removed properly, the TileDataLayer folder (which contains the modern start menu database) is still in use by the Tile Data Model Server Service. The next time the user logs in, a new profile .001 or .domain is created. The new profile uses the TileDataLayer folder from the first profile. When the user logs off, the .001 or .domain profile is deleted successfully. This behavior continues until you restart the machine, at which point a new TileDataLayer folder is created in the .001 or .domain profile which is not deleted when the user logs out. I can resolve this issue by stopping the Tile Data Model Service manually at log off, but this is a really ugly fix and it fills the event log with errors. Has anyone else had this issue?

[3s-gtech]

That sounds great with the permissions, I'll give it a shot. I have found the same issue with profiles not removing properly at logoff, but not had a chance to investigate further.

[3s-gtech]

Just a note, when adding the permissions to the hive, the group is ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES and is found as a local group.

 

You sir, are obviously a wizard or similar. That has worked perfectly, and has sped up my mandatory profile logon a bit too!

 

Edited February 22, 2016 by 3s-gtech

[LeonC]

No problems, glad it worked for you! Are you experiencing the same issue of user profile folders not being successfully deleted when users log out?

[3s-gtech]

I am, yes. The log files it leaves aren't particularly small either - the remaining folder is nearly 5MB which will add up over a machine's lifetime. Is it possible to add that folder and file to the mandatory profile?

[stemuser]

Leon just wanted to say thanks. The ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES permissions did the trick. I did try this with the default read permissions, but never thought to change the permissions to Full! Saved me a massive headache ;-)

 

Just interested to know if any of you guys got anywhere with the annoying TileDataLayer folder locking on exit and creating the dreaded .001...00x folders? I would be interested in any fixes you can suggest.

 

Cheers.

[3s-gtech]

I can only suggest a scheduled task at this stage, which deletes the folders. It shouldn't cause any issues because the hive has been unloaded from the registry, so perhaps as a shutdown script?

[timbo343]

Im having a problem with the TileDataLayer folder too which is causing no end of problems with local profiles for students. I will be testing Mandatory profiles but hear that the Redstone update will mean the profiles go from a .v5 to a .v6

[Arthur]

I'm having a problem with the TileDataLayer folder too which is causing no end of problems with local profiles for students.

]Just interested to know if any of you guys got anywhere with the annoying TileDataLayer folder locking on exit and creating the dreaded .001...00x folders? I would be interested in any fixes you can suggest.

That issue should be fixed in this month's Patch Tuesday update...

 

https://twitter.com/jonrolls/status/718124906299260928

[timbo343]

That issue should be fixed in this month's Patch Tuesday update...

 

https://twitter.com/jonrolls/status/718124906299260928

 

Fingers crossed!

[timbo343]

That issue should be fixed in this month's Patch Tuesday update...

 

https://twitter.com/jonrolls/status/718124906299260928

 

There's nothing for LTSB. I think this is where LTSB lets us down. Might have to think about moving over to education.