User has no icons

[Little-Miss]

Right, me again...

 

When a member of staff logs on they just get the redirected desktop but no icons...i've compared her account to other members of staff and they look the same...

 

Have i missed something?

[JOrdan01070]

Are there any error messages. You could check that the machine is connected to the network or the user is a member of the correct group for the folder.

[Little-Miss]

I've checked the machine which i used to log the user onto to test and there are no error in event log. No errors come up during log in, just carried on like normal, just no icons...

[dwhyte85]

On her profile on your server... does it have the icons in the Desktop folder?

[Little-Miss]

hmm, it does...but nothing ive put there. A few Clicker 5 files....

[ricki]

Hi

 

Have you got a corrupted profile on the machine. Does the teacher get no icons if they log onto another machine. Plus can another teacher log onto the first machine with a problem and get icons. Lastly are your teachers using roaming profiles. I have had this with roaming profiles when a teacher has copied huge files onto the destop and the pc has to download all that from the server each time they log on.

 

Richard

[Little-Miss]

Have you got a corrupted profile on the machine. I dunno

Does the teacher get no icons if they log onto another machine. I logged onto another machine using her account to see for myself and she had no icons.

Plus can another teacher log onto the first machine with a problem and get icons. Yup

Lastly are your teachers using roaming profiles. Yes they are...

[pooley]

If you "Right Click" the desktop do you get the option to "Show Icons/Desktop" ?

[mb2k01]

I would check that the user has read permission for the folder on the server which is being accessed as the redirected desktop. Also make sure that they have permission to the share itself.

 

E.g.

 

Redirection set as \\server1\desktop

Share actually points on server to D:\shares\staff\desktop

Make sure that the user has read permission to the "desktop" folder on D:, but also that they have share permssion on the share itself.

[Little-Miss]

will give that a try...

 

Right click is disabled for the users...

[Michael]

I suspect the user isn't a member of the Security Group the rest of the staff are. Within Active Directory, right click the user, choose 'Properties', then click the 'Member of' tab. There should be two groups. Domain Users and whatever the staff group is called. This could (for example) be called 'Staff', 'Teachers', or whatever it's been setup as. Compare it to another staff user.

[mossj]

This happens to us and it is usually a corrupted profile or as others have said a missing group on their username...

 

How to fix a corupt profile

Restart problem machine and log on as admin, then go to document and settings and delete her folder. Then clear her profile on the server (by clear I mean delete the contents of \\server\usernameprofile (or whatever you have profiles as)).

 

They should be able to log onto the machine fine with icons and all.... but do be aware she could pick up her dirty profile again, so it's best to use a startup script to clear profiles whenever a machine is turned on.

 

To explain what happens here:

User logs on and for what ever reason her profile isn't loaded correctly >

User freaks out and instinct tells her to log out >

When user logs out the computer copys the corupt profile back to the server >

Now when ever the user logs onto any machine all she will get is her corupt profile.

Edited September 15, 2009 by mossj

[Little-Miss]

ah thanks mossj, that helps...

 

What happens if shes logged onto more then one machine? Do i have to go onto each one and delete her profile from it?

 

What does the start up script look like? do you have an example?

 

That was the first thing i did mikey and it all matched up.

[Michael]

That was the first thing i did mikey and it all matched up.

 

Try copying a real existing user, then just change the profile and home directory paths. Does this work?

[elsiegee40]

What happens if shes logged onto more then one machine? Do i have to go onto each one and delete her profile from it?

 

This usually happens at my school because a user has logged onto more than machine... although 'it just happens' too. Actively discourage it. I find that pointing out to the affected users that the only people who get their profiles corrupted seem to be those who forget to logoff as they move around the school and they gradually get the message (well, most of them anyway )

 

Yes the profile needs to be removed from all local machines, otherwise you risk the corrupt profile being saved over the good one on the server.

 

Using delprof.exe (documented in the wiki) as part of a startup script means that all local profiles are deleted on boot up, getting rid of the rubbish. Which can save a lot of messing unless you have a very small network.

 

there are one or two threads around about people from logging on in more than one place at a time, but I have never bothered to do anything about it.

[mossj]

I have a .vbs that runs at startup will post it tommorow when I get in, I looked at delprof.exe but for whatever reason decided to go for the .vbs file.

 

You will have to remove it on all the machines she logged onto whilst this has been effecting her... sucks I know.

 

With students we used to just clear it off there current machine and hope they don't logon to another machine that is carrying the bad profile, which if they reported it stright away should only be the current machine...

[Little-Miss]

Right, i emptied her profile on the server, and removed her profile from one of the affected computers and it now works so i suspect it was a corrupt profile.

 

So then, if i find a script to remove profiles this will help to stop this happening?

[elsiegee40]

Right, i emptied her profile on the server, and removed her profile from one of the affected computers and it now works so i suspect it was a corrupt profile.

 

So then, if i find a script to remove profiles this will help to stop this happening?

 

Using delprof.exe or whatever will clear things down on a regular basis and make your life easier when fixing this problem - you will still need to check the profile has been deleted on the local machine, but not all the local machines.

 

However, as far as prevention is concerned, it boils down to educating your users to logoff and crossing your fingers that it doesn't 'just happen' (it got me this morning )

 

Another tip:

 

When sorting out the profile on the server, don't just delete the corrupt one.

 

Rename it to OLD or whatever.

Get the user has logged on (which creates a new profile) and then log off (and the profile is saved back to the server).

You can then copy favourites over from the stuffed profile to the new and any extra desktop icons... you may redirect both, in which case you don't need to do this before deleting the corrupt profile. users like this!

[mossj]

cleanprofile.vbs

ON ERROR RESUME NEXT	
' Clears user profiles on computer startup	
' leaves the following folders	
' Administrator	
' RM Default User	
' Default User	
' All Users	
' ClassMate	
' Reference : http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9kcx47hd.aspx	
dim oktodelete, fso, f, foldercollection	
set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")	
set f = fso.getfolder("C:\Documents and Settings")	
set foldercollection = f.subfolders
for each folder in foldercollection
    oktodelete = true
    if instr(1, folder.path, "Administrator") then
        oktodelete = false
    end if
    if instr(1, folder.path, "RM Default User") then
        oktodelete = false
    end if
    if instr(1, folder.path, "Default User") then
        oktodelete = false
    end if
    if instr(1, folder.path, "All Users") then
        oktodelete = false
    end if
    if instr(1, folder.path, "ClassMate") then
        oktodelete = false
    end if
    if instr(1, folder.path, "LocalService") then
        oktodelete = false
    end if
    if instr(1, folder.path, "NetworkService") then
        oktodelete = false
    end if
    if oktodelete then
        'wscript.echo "Deleting Folder : " & folder.path
        fso.deletefolder folder.path, true
    end if
next	

 

As a startup script, works for us and leaves the folders that we don't want it touch. It has to be a startup script because when a user logs on some of there profile files get locked for the duration that machine is on, hence you wouldn't be able to delete it after they have logged off or when shutting down.

 

It won't stop it happening (I think thats an advantage of madatory profiles), but it will mean the fix is just clearing there profile on the server (ensuring there not logged on anywhere before hand)

Edited September 16, 2009 by mossj

[Little-Miss]

Right, bear with me here. There is somewhere to put startup/shutdown scripts isnt there....where do i find it...

[mossj]

Sorry,

 

Make sure you put the .vbs in a share accessable by all (I assume it has to be all) I put mine in the netlogon share ""\\domain\netlogon"

 

on your DC (I assume it has to be your dc) go to start>admin tools>gpo management

 

Open up your forest , then domain, then your actual domain, then right click on group policy objects and click new.

 

Enter a name for the object i.e "cleanprofiles", then find it and right click>edit

 

It should open up the group policy management editor

 

go to Computer config>policies>windows settings> scripts. right click on startup and go to properties.

 

Click add and browse to the UNC share (don't use IP addresses (use servernames instead), it mucks it up for us)

 

Ok everything and close the Group policy management editor.

 

In group policy management you will need to link to the ou's of the computers you want to clean. so right click on the OU's and click 'link existing gpo'. Select the gpo and click ok.

 

Open up command prompt on the server and type "gpupdate /force", if it asks you if you want to logoff users hit "n" for no.

 

That should be that wait a 15 mins or so for the computers to start picking it up and you should be all good.

[Little-Miss]

you're a star mossj!!

[Little-Miss]

well that script works perfectly.

 

I cant decide what to do though..i know its not a big deal, but using that script means that everytime a user logs on to a computer, maybe on they use everyday, its has to go through that whole thing with that box in the top left corner. I know that takes about 30 seconds, but i imagine it may be a little irritating...fussy i know...

[witch]

Can't you set it to run when they log off?

[elsiegee40]

Trouble is many of the profiles won't delete until the machine has been rebooted, so it's better to do it on Startup (Not Logon)