FN-GM Posted February 21, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 Hi When a user is logged into a domain account and it not connected to the network they cannot access any of their start menu. How would I set it so It will access the all users folder when not on our network? Thanks
meastaugh1 Posted February 21, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 On similar threads, someone mentioned that they use a script which copies/synchs shortcuts between the server and a local cached copy at startup/logon. Then just redirect the start menu to this cached location. Haven't done it yet, but intend to. Theroertically easy enough to setup.
kmount Posted February 21, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 Is there a need for the start menu to actually be held on the network? - We used redirection for the start menu regardless of being 'online' or not just as its easier to maintain for us and stops them picking up other shortcuts...
FN-GM Posted February 21, 2008 Author Posted February 21, 2008 The whole start menu isn’t re-directed there is just a few shortcuts on the network. All the others and locally in the all users folder.
kmount Posted February 21, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 Thats what I mean .... If when they are offline NONE of the start menu works AND you only have a few network shortcuts, would it not be easier/saner to hold the start menu locally with a shortcut contained within to the network 'start menu' container.
FN-GM Posted February 21, 2008 Author Posted February 21, 2008 I would but it slows the start menu from opening when there is no network connection. Plus some shortcuts eg VNC i only want administrators to see.
kmount Posted February 22, 2008 Posted February 22, 2008 Hm, I've found that if the start menu is held locally on the laptop its actually quicker to open contrary to your post above. I suppose it depends how you think about it, how many administrators do you have? - I mean, if its only a couple, could they not make the shortcuts themselves and avoid having to 'fix' something for everyone to only benefit a few?
kmount Posted February 22, 2008 Posted February 22, 2008 I would but it slows the start menu from opening when there is no network connection. Plus some shortcuts eg VNC i only want administrators to see. If you explain that a bit more, maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick?
FN-GM Posted February 22, 2008 Author Posted February 22, 2008 We have re-directed start menus because there are some applications we don’t want the kids to get hold of for example SIMS. And we have a folder in our start menu with handy tools an example is a script to lock remote machines and VNC. We do not want other users to see these.
robk Posted February 22, 2008 Posted February 22, 2008 This sounds like the problem I hit with our network, we had a redirected start menu to a unc share. This worked well for years, but as the number of machines rose we saw slow start menu loading and problems with laptops (like FN-Greatermanchester). It turned out that the load on the share started to increase and xp scans all the short cuts on the menu before displaying it. What we did is redirect the menus to a local folder, and use a startup script to sync via robocopy the file share to the local folder. Means power up can be a little slow, but logins are fast. Hope this helps. Robk
FN-GM Posted February 22, 2008 Author Posted February 22, 2008 (edited) what a good idea, love it! Please can I take a look at your script? Edited February 22, 2008 by FN-Greatermanchester
robk Posted February 23, 2008 Posted February 23, 2008 what a good idea, love it! Please can I take a look at your script? Sure, it looks like this. rem rsync script to update local version of templates folder rem create dir structure md c:\templates md c:\templates\backgrounds md c:\templates\desktop md c:\templates\menus md c:\templates\menus\admin md c:\templates\menus\admin\programs md c:\templates\menus\admin\programs\staff md c:\templates\menus\admin\programs\staff\programs md c:\templates\menus\admin\programs\staff\programs\students Rem rsync backgrounds \\{DNS DOMAIN}\netlogon\robocopy.exe \\qegs-2\templates\backgrounds c:\templates\backgrounds /MIR Rem rsync desktop \\{DNS DOMAIN}\netlogon\robocopy.exe \\qegs-2\templates\desktop c:\templates\desktop /MIR Rem rsync staff & student menu \\{DNS DOMAIN}\netlogon\robocopy.exe \\qegs-2\templates\menus\admin\programs\staff c:\templates\menus\admin\programs\staff /MIR Rem rsync backgrounds \\{DNS DOMAIN}\netlogon\robocopy.exe /COPY:DATS /IS \\qegs-2\templates\backgrounds c:\templates\backgrounds /MIR Rem rsync desktop \\{DNS DOMAIN}\netlogon\robocopy.exe /COPY:DATS /IS \\qegs-2\templates\desktop c:\templates\desktop /MIR Rem rsync staff & student menu \\{DNS DOMAIN}\netlogon\robocopy.exe /COPY:DATS /IS \\qegs-2\templates\menus\admin\programs\staff c:\templates\menus\admin\programs\staff /MIR You need to replace {DNS DOMAIN} with the full domain name for your windows domain, this allows AD to sync all your scripts across domain controllers for redundancy. I ended up using multiple robocopys for some reason, I think it was due to security settings, though one line should have worked. Certainly I set this up 18 months ago and it works for us. RobK
richvis Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 Hello, I know the post is a while ago, but it was a great help. The startmenu has been copied but how can I redirect the location in grouppolicy, so the users will use the local copy of the startmenu.
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