Desktop GPO

[Jawloms]

We're going through a transition at the moment of Office 2013 -> Office 2016, and have different computers with different things installed on anyway. Because this means different icons work in different rooms/different trolleys, I'd rather have the desktop redirect to a different place depending on where the student is logging in. I tried setting a desktop redirect per computer OU and just couldn't get it working properly. I did the loopback processing mode thingy. Has anyone done it that can give me some pointers please?

 

Thank you

 

Stuart

[Rob_D]

It's a bit of a workaround, but...

 

What we used to do was have a "redirects" folder on the C drive that was updated by a startup script and then GPO redirects to there.

 

So your user based redirect GPO points to "C:\redirects\desktops\staff" or whatever.

And on your server share you a library of "redirects" root folders (with all the desktops/start menus inside) for each of your different computers/locations. These could be copied to the end PCs by startup script or GPO using the PC name, or OU to differentiate, whatever works for you. Or, if you're not worried about updating them, they could even go out as part of the image.

 

Hope this helps.

[Foresthippy]

I tried setting a desktop redirect per computer OU and just couldn't get it working properly. I did the loopback processing mode thingy.

 

What problem are you having with this? We use this without any problem.

 

I've attached a screenshot of our GPO.

 

[Jawloms]

What problem are you having with this? We use this without any problem.

 

I've attached a screenshot of our GPO.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]52807[/ATTACH]

 

Thanks, but that appears to be redirecting depending on the security group the user is in. I only want to redirect for students, and I want it based on which OU the computer is in. Or am I reading it wrong?

[Foresthippy]

It's applied to computer OU but is further differentiated by user, so pupils get a certain desktop and staff get their own desktop. The pupil bit is the bit of interest as that's what changes from computer OU to computer OU - the staff always get their own desktop.

[Rob_D]

As far as I remember you can only have one loop-back policy applying at once. Might be worth checking to see if you have any others running higher up.

 

The other thing that might work, is to have the policies applied to the users and use WMI filtering to make them only run on certain machines.

[sted]

you could change the office shortcuts to just say word which links to a batch file something like

"c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\WINWORD.EXE"

"c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\WINWORD.EXE"

 

not an elegant solution but should work