Desktop Folder Redirection

[jertsy]

Hi

 

I have folder redirection setup for all staff and pupils, I have some staff that use certain software that I dont want on the desktop for everyone as this shows as dead icons, does anyone know of any tricks that can get around this? I can create seperate desktops for the users that require it or setup roaming profiles but I do like folder redirection as its simple and never breaks! Or a third option is put the shortcut in their my docs. I just wondered if I'm missing another option here.

 

Cheers

[Blue_Cookeh]

IMO each staff user should have their own Desktop folder, and each pupil will use a standard one like you seem to have now.

 

Then you should be creating the shortcut for this particular application in the Public Desktop so it appears to all users on machines where the application is installed.

[Sagima]

IMO each staff user should have their own Desktop folder, and each pupil will use a standard one like you seem to have now.

 

Then you should be creating the shortcut for this particular application in the Public Desktop so it appears to all users on machines where the application is installed.

 

That is how we do it as well

[jertsy]

IMO each staff user should have their own Desktop folder, and each pupil will use a standard one like you seem to have now.

 

Then you should be creating the shortcut for this particular application in the Public Desktop so it appears to all users on machines where the application is installed.

 

So do you manually create a folder for each member of staff and redirect to that? If so are you using a variable in the GPO? Or do you use roaming? I see what you are saying about the public desktop, this doesnt work at present as I enabled the policy UC\policies\admin templates\Start Menu and taskbar\remove common program groups from start menu. I did this as it looked a mess and I couldnt control what the start menu\desktop looked like.

[DavR]

I've inherited a system with shared redirected desktops for staff - personally, I would have left them with the machine desktops, and given them individual redirected desktops, but I'm not going to rock the boat.

 

What we have for things that aren't installed everywhere is to put those in folders on the desktop. That way, dead links don't show on the regular desktop (and reduces the number of icons).

[jertsy]

I've inherited a system with shared redirected desktops for staff - personally, I would have left them with the machine desktops, and given them individual redirected desktops, but I'm not going to rock the boat.

 

What we have for things that aren't installed everywhere is to put those in folders on the desktop. That way, dead links don't show on the regular desktop (and reduces the number of icons).

 

In that scenario Dave, do you know if you would have to manually create a folder for each member of staff to store their desktop? And if so how is the path in the GPO configured, because presumable you would want only one GPO for staff redirecting their desktop? I may be being dense, but I have not done individual redirecting before, just a whole group.

[DavR]

In that scenario Dave, do you know if you would have to manually create a folder for each member of staff to store their desktop? And if so how is the path in the GPO configured, because presumable you would want only one GPO for staff redirecting their desktop? I may be being dense, but I have not done individual redirecting before, just a whole group.

 

On the system I have at the moment, all staff are redirected to the same Desktop folder - simple.

 

What I have done in the past (and this is a beat of a cheat) is just redirected individual desktops to a folder in their Home directory. This removes the need to create a whole new shared area to store redirected desktops. It kinda made sense, as the reason we did it was because staff were storing docs on their Desktop instead of My Docs, so we effectively combined the two. Probably not best practice though.

[DavR]

Another thought could be to play around with GPP files to put a shortcut on the desktop, but have it filtered by group, the group being "People that have access to application X".

 

Might get in trouble with permissions though, as the logged on user presumably doesn't have modify permissions on the redirected desktop... just thinking out loud.

[jertsy]

On the system I have at the moment, all staff are redirected to the same Desktop folder - simple.

 

What I have done in the past (and this is a beat of a cheat) is just redirected individual desktops to a folder in their Home directory. This removes the need to create a whole new shared area to store redirected desktops. It kinda made sense, as the reason we did it was because staff were storing docs on their Desktop instead of My Docs, so we effectively combined the two. Probably not best practice though.

 

So I guess you are using the variable %hompath% or something like that in the GPO.

 

This is what puts me off giving write access to the desktop as in the past I have seen all sorts of rubbish stored on there. For admin staff I think I am going to go for rediected but disable the policy UC\policies\admin templates\Start Menu and taskbar\remove common program groups from start menu and store local applications in the public desktop, that way they dont have dead shortcuts. I may leave teaching staff as is for now as they dont complain.

 

Thanks Dave

Edited April 14, 2016 by jertsy

[DavR]

Yeah, redirect all users to the same folder, and then %HOMEPATH%\Desktop I think was what I did.

 

Maybe play with deploying the shortcut via filtered GPP though, that might work.

[AmosPerrins]

+1 for setting shortcuts through GPP - shortcuts don't show up on machines without the software installed. Ours are set at the machine level so perms aren't an issue.