Desktop wallpaper?

[jonspurs]

Question - do you all use a wallpaper via UNC path on a share or push the image out to client PCs and point locally?

Just that Microsoft allows you to UNC but some article I found before said not to...that it'd put a strain...though I'm not sure if it really is.

[DJ-1701]

Question - do you all use a wallpaper via UNC path on a share or push the image out to client PCs and point locally?

Just that Microsoft allows you to UNC but some article I found before said not to...that it'd put a strain...though I'm not sure if it really is.

 

We put the wallpaper on the local computer, pushed out every reboot if there is a change. Just saves a little time processing and there is more consistancy in case the network drops briefly during login.

[victory2015]

Everything about this is amazing, how did you get the big SIMS icon?

 

Am guessing you use a script to change the background? As I've found Windows 10 doesn't like an updated JPEG and just caches the old one.

 

pinned is the shortcut to pulsar.exe

in C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net i have 3 extra files.

 

an xml files named Pulsar.visualelementsmanifest.xml

this contains thew following code.

 

 

then i have two png files - ive attached these.

 

quick reboot and sims will have nice big logo, also have set the size of the tile in the start xml.

 

you can customize most of the application tiles in this way, its how i do the log off button, its linked to a logoff.exe file, just have make sure these three files go where the exe file is stored not where the shortcut is.

 

also i changed the icons of the shortcuts in the start menu to white so they appear in the tile like that.

 

[Garacesh]

Question - do you all use a wallpaper via UNC path on a share or push the image out to client PCs and point locally?

Just that Microsoft allows you to UNC but some article I found before said not to...that it'd put a strain...though I'm not sure if it really is.

For the kids, we copy everything locally with a startup script (which includes mandatory profile), the idea being if there's catastrophic network failure, once they're logged on they can still do $Stuff.

For staff they use local profiles and get their start menu, wallpaper, etc over the network.

[Rob_D]

Our base image is on a network share, but BGinfo creates the final desktop in the local temp folder.

[snagrat]

pinned is the shortcut to pulsar.exe

in C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net i have 3 extra files.

 

an xml files named Pulsar.visualelementsmanifest.xml

this contains thew following code.

 

 

then i have two png files - ive attached these.

 

quick reboot and sims will have nice big logo, also have set the size of the tile in the start xml.

 

you can customize most of the application tiles in this way, its how i do the log off button, its linked to a logoff.exe file, just have make sure these three files go where the exe file is stored not where the shortcut is.

 

also i changed the icons of the shortcuts in the start menu to white so they appear in the tile like that.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]41696[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]41696[/ATTACH]

 

You pushing this start menu out to client via the Start Screen GPO?

 

Would love to see the xml you use if you are

[AJWhite1970]

Question - do you all use a wallpaper via UNC path on a share or push the image out to client PCs and point locally?

Just that Microsoft allows you to UNC but some article I found before said not to...that it'd put a strain...though I'm not sure if it really is.

 

Mine used to all run via UNC but last summer I changed it so all our login processes run locally from the SSD's and it's made a massive difference to login times

 

[mullet_man]

pinned is the shortcut to pulsar.exe

in C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net i have 3 extra files.

 

an xml files named Pulsar.visualelementsmanifest.xml

this contains thew following code.

 

 

then i have two png files - ive attached these.

 

quick reboot and sims will have nice big logo, also have set the size of the tile in the start xml.

 

you can customize most of the application tiles in this way, its how i do the log off button, its linked to a logoff.exe file, just have make sure these three files go where the exe file is stored not where the shortcut is.

 

also i changed the icons of the shortcuts in the start menu to white so they appear in the tile like that.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]41696[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]41696[/ATTACH]

 

Many thanks for this I'll give it ago when I've got some free time.

[ITGURU]

All computers have a custom logon screen with the Academy's logo on.

Students get a desktop background with the logo on, staff can change their background if they wish.

 

Staff accounts are locked down so cannot be used on student computers, so no need to differentiate between the 2 when logged on.

[OllyMc27]

This is ours, uses a combination of vbs scripts and bginfo to set the text for thoughts of week and week numbers. We also change the actual image each week in the background.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]41144[/ATTACH]

 

Would you consider sharing the scripts for pulling the users information such as email address and job title?

 

[Rob_D]

' Create the ADSystem Information 
ObjectSet objADSystemInfo = CreateObject("ADSystemInfo")
' Get the current information into a new ObjectSet 
objUser = GetObject("LDAP://" & objADSystemInfo.UserName)
'Now use the mail property for the SMTP Address
Echo objUser.mail

 

We've use this to get the email. I've not played, but I imagine you could adapt it to pull out any AD property.

[thimon]

you can customize most of the application tiles in this way, its how i do the log off button, its linked to a logoff.exe file, just have make sure these three files go where the exe file is stored not where the shortcut is.

 

Got it working thank you so much! I think I like it?

 

[victory2015]

here you are

 

You pushing this start menu out to client via the Start Screen GPO?

 

Would love to see the xml you use if you are

    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/LayoutModification"
   xmlns:defaultlayout="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/FullDefaultLayout"
   xmlns:start="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/StartLayout"
   xmlns:taskbar="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/TaskbarLayout"
   Version="1">
 

   
     
       
         
         
         
         
         
         
       
       
         
         
         
         
         
         
       
       
         
         
         
         
         
         
       
       
         
         
       
     
   
 

   
     
   
  
	
     
   
 

[victory2015]

Got it working thank you so much! I think I like it?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]41827[/ATTACH]

Great!! can you send me your google one!!

[thimon]

Great!! can you send me your google one!!

I just took a Chrome transparent logo png and set the background to #343434

[victory2015]

Here you go...bginfo scripts.rar

 

Would you consider sharing the scripts for pulling the users information such as email address and job title?

[Manny-Tech]

Is anyone able to explain how you get a Documents and Downloads tile like @victory2015 has?

 

I've tried adding my own logout png into C:\Windows\System32 + editing the visualelementsmanifest.xml but I still don't get the icon I have created when I pin logoff.exe. Any ideas?

[thimon]

I've currently got a shortcut pointing to C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -L to log users off, then an image called shutdown.png with the visualelementsmanifest.xml file edited accordingly. You've also got to have a small .ps1 script to refresh the icons upon logon. However I'm going to move away from this method, another school in our Trust has showed how you can have a shortcut pointing to anything you wish with a custom icon image which achieves the same result. Going to test this method as a replacement to how we're currently doing it.

[Manny-Tech]

@thimon - interesting. Are you likely to share that method? Think we'd all benefit from that?

[DSapseid]

Here you go...bginfo scripts.rar

 

how are you getting 2 of the bgi files to load at once?

 

When i run it from a batch as i have always done with bginfo the second file clears the first info off the desktop.

[Rob_D]

I would assume that the second BGinfo instance uses the .jpg(or whatever) output from the first one as its background image, thus allowing the layering of new information.

[victory2015]

I would assume that the second BGinfo instance uses the .jpg(or whatever) output from the first one as its background image, thus allowing the layering of new information.

 

what this man says!