Folder text in White - Aaaarrrrhh

[woody]

The Kids have started to format the text of the folder names in their user areas to white, so you have to highlight them to see what they are. I can't see how they are doing this. Even more annoying is that I can't see where to change it back, or if there is a GP that will stop them from doing it in the first place.

 

Anyone???

[danIT]

reset the folders??

 

1. Open the Tools menu and click Folder Options. The Folder Options dialog box appears.

 

2. Click the View tab.

 

3. Click the Reset All Folders button.

 

4. Click Apply, then click OK.

[woody]

Sorry but that doesn't work. It is the text within the folder that has changed colour. I have attached a screenshot of a typical example. You can see where I have highlighed some of the files, but the rest are invisible (white).

[apeo]

In GP under User Config>Admin templates>Display

 

'Hide Appearance and Themes Tab'

 

Is this enabled?

[MrDylan]

So disabling access to the menu item will stop it....or so you would think!

 

Students here can't access those settings yet still change the their home folder appearance.

 

The method?

 

desktop.ini file in their areas can be edited using notepad, not sure how you'd stop this, and to be honest I've never been too bothered to research it.

[webman]

The setting for this is in the hidden file desktop.ini in the folder that has different coloured icon labels, and is usually safe to delete.

[MrDylan]

To change your text colour just delete that file, or change this section that I suspect is in there (taken from a Students area)

 

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]

Attributes=1

IconArea_Image=H:\Jonnys pics\ffx2_6.jpg

IconArea_Text=0x00FFFFFF

[apeo]

Oh to change it back have a look in display settings under appearance.

[steve]

A posibility:

 

The folders / files are hyperlinks (web view) and you may need to change the defaults in internet explorer options (default text and hyperlink colour)

 

Or maybe they have changed the Dispay properties - Apperance - advanced - Item (Message Box) Font Colour

[NetworkGeezer]

desktop.ini file in their areas can be edited using notepad, not sure how you'd stop this, and to be honest I've never been too bothered to research it.

 

How about using permissions so that only SYSTEM and Administrators could edit it?

[fooby]

Is it the same display when you look as admin / that user / different user? Colour settings are per user, so if they change their colours, yours wont.

 

Also its safe to delete desktop.ini, I ban them here (the files) XP clients search for these over 1000 folders and it takes 5 mins plus to list all the folders.

 

fooby

 

P.S Do a search of their document folders and delete all of the desktop.ini files.

[MrDylan]

desktop.ini file in their areas can be edited using notepad, not sure how you'd stop this, and to be honest I've never been too bothered to research it.

 

How about using permissions so that only SYSTEM and Administrators could edit it?

 

lol yeh I guess

[woody]

Right here goes:

 

Users don't get access to Display settings full stop. They can't view hidden files in their user area so I can't see how they can edit desktop.ini unless they are configuring one at home and bringing it in and overwriting it in their folder.(Can't see them going to all that trouble personally) They can't right click in the windows shell. They don't have access to folder options.

 

They access their files directly on the server through Folder re-direction in the group policy. So My Documents is actually on the server. The screenshot above is actually of a folder on the server, not looking at it through a client. So when they change the text colour of folders / files, it is actually changin it directly on the server. But I just can't see how they are doing that. Maybe I should threaten one of them to tell me?

[webman]

They could have got the INI file format from the web or home and dumped the file there, but it's strange that it doesn't show in your file listing screenshot.

[MrDylan]

If I file's hidden they could still open it by opening notepad, going to their folder and typing in the name though surely?

 

Hidden is just that right? Hidden, not actually inaccessible?

[apeo]

Hang on a sec.. the kids are somehow changing the settings on your server??!! So are all your folders on your server affected or only certain user home dirs?

[woody]

No, they only have access to their own documents area on the server, through the My Documents icon on their desktop. They somehow alter the text format in there. I think it is to do with the desktop.ini file in some way. I just need to get the time in amongst the chaos of this place to check it out for shure!

[woody]

Right ok.

 

I've been into several user folders directly on the server. For some reason, even when folder options is set to VIEW hidden and system files, I can't see the greyed out 'desktop.ini'. However, I know it is there because I can open it with the command: 'notepad d:\\desktop.ini'

 

I have tried opening the file when logged on as a pupil and I can edit and save with no problems. However, I just can't see our pupils going to that legnth. Maybe I underestimate them, or maybe they have a small util that does it for them?

 

Either way, my next question is: How do I stop it? Is there an automated way of replaceing the desktop.ini at all levels of folder heirarchy? Can I set permissions on it? What happens when they create new folders. Will a default desktop.ini not also be created which they can edit?

[apeo]

If you want to replace the desktop.ini file in all folders, i would say us a script and if you want to stop them from changing the desktop.ini file, maybe set permissions on it. if you wanted to set permissions on a large scale ie all you home dirs then run a script using cacls to set the permissions. I'll create one later today if that is of use to you.

[Geoff]

They are probably using the 'customize this folder' wizard. Disable Web Desktop in your GPOs.

[fooby]

Does the server that holds the home folders run windows server2003 r2? If it does then you could set a file restriction on it, so these files cannot be created.

 

fooby

[MrDylan]

Or, just forget about it.

 

The way I see it is, they get a little bit of customization for their own area, that causes no damage, and only inconveniences them.

 

If they need come to me with a problem that involves navigating the area then I just say I won't do anything to help unless I can see the writing.

 

Also, they probably can see the writing when logged in as them, when it's been done here they've put images as backgrounds, but the location is usally their mapped drive so it's broken when anyone but them looks in their folder.

 

If it's really bothering you that much set a script to delete it or overwrite it with a clean one at logon.