mrbios Posted September 7, 2009 Posted September 7, 2009 Hi there, I'm just looking into ways of forcing the teachers here to go to the intranet page before asking us 101 questions about things that are already on there (clicking on internet explorer is far too much hard work!) Is there a way of setting our intranet page to be the desktop wallpaper for all staff via a GPO and if so how? my google powers are weak today it would seem. Thanks
sted Posted September 7, 2009 Posted September 7, 2009 it can be done as i wrote a html menu as a desktop to replace winsuite but i think i just set it as the desktop in a mandatory profile
Ignatius Posted September 7, 2009 Posted September 7, 2009 Can't this be done via Active Desktop? See here.
PEO Posted September 7, 2009 Posted September 7, 2009 You will need to set this in the profile. copy profile have an account to pick up copied profile and make the profile .dat login with admin cradentials right click desktop and selct 'Desktop' Tab click the 'Customize Desktop' Button. On the Desktop items window click the 'Web' tab click 'new' button type the address for the intranet e.g. http://intranet and click ok and apply this intranet will then be shown on the desktop it will be tiny and will need to be enlarged to fill the screen move the mouse over the intranet window on the dektop and click the little down arrow in the top left of the window. select cover desktop. click ok to on the desktop window and logoff. restart machine and then go back to the profile and make it a .man again. copy to target profile
Michael Posted September 7, 2009 Posted September 7, 2009 It should be pointed out Active Desktop isn't available if you have IE7 or IE8 installed (on XP). It isn't available at all in Windows Vista or Windows 7.
TheFopp Posted September 7, 2009 Posted September 7, 2009 It should be pointed out Active Desktop isn't available if you have IE7 or IE8 installed (on XP). It isn't available at all in Windows Vista or Windows 7. Not true.... I have an Active Desktop pushed out via GPO and it has run happily with IE6, IE7 and IE8 all on XP. I wrote a nice little html menu that matches our school design and links to the useful areas of the intranet (e.g. webmail, moodle, staff resources, timetables etc). Sits nicely on the right-hand side of everyones desktop. Also have a different Active Desktop page for the students pointing to useful areas for them. I'll link an image in the morning if I remember.
Michael Posted September 7, 2009 Posted September 7, 2009 Not true.... I have an Active Desktop pushed out via GPO and it has run happily with IE6, IE7 and IE8 all on XP. Officially from Microsoft that is what they'll tell you, but yes, there probably are ways around it. Typically, this is why I use BGInfo to control/deploy desktop wallpapers.
Ignatius Posted September 7, 2009 Posted September 7, 2009 I'll link an image in the morning if I remember. Hmm - now I'm confused about Active Desktop and various IEs! Maybe I'll do some testing at home to see what I can get working. I'm not a coder - I'd be interested to see the HTML code (with anything confidential stripped out) if you'd be willing to share it.
TheFopp Posted September 7, 2009 Posted September 7, 2009 XP SP3, IE7 no problems here There's nothing special with the code. Its just a standard webpage I built. Told GPO to use this webpage as the Active Desktop. Apply the GPO to the right PCs in Active Directory and it works. Originally set it up about 5 years ago. Has worked ever since no matter which version of IE (6,7 or 8). According to this article Release Notes for Internet Explorer 7 Active Desktop has been removed in Vista... doesn't say it wont work on XP in IE7... just Vista.
Michael Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 And it is removed from Windows 7 too. Not sure why Microsoft decided this. I suspect it may be to do with security.
CESIL Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 Good luck with getting teachers to notice what's on the page... I have our internet homepage set to our intranet and I don't think anybody has ever noticed the messages I put there...at least until I added flashing lights around the message box and even that only worked for short time...
mrbios Posted September 8, 2009 Author Posted September 8, 2009 Thanks for the info guys, we've decided not to bother with it now if it's something which is being phased out in newer OS's - that and the fact theres no quick GP way of switching it over without having to change the profiles etc
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