machin05 Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 Hi all, I've been using Win7 at home for a few months now and am loving it. So much so, that I'm considering upgrading a few of the computer suites here over the summer. I've loaded a VM with Windows 7 so I can play around with it sitting on our domain. What I'm looking for from you kind folk is help/suggestions/advice/tips on how you set up your Win7 machines prior to system cloning. I've already changed the printer setup from a vbs login script, to "deployed printers" in Active Directory, which seems to work flawlessly (so far). What I need advice on is the finer details that often get overlooked until it's too late. Things like: How you handle the potential of 100s of users (with regard to profiles)? In XP I set up a users profile, then when I'm happy with it I copy it to the "Default User" profile and every user that logs on to the pc has a local profile created using the Default User as a template. Do you lock down your Start Menus and Desktops - how do you populate these with the appropriate shortcuts? How do you handle Libraries - do you redirect the "Documents" library to a Users home directory on the network? Do you have custom default User Icons, Wallpapers, Login Screens that apply to all users or groups of users? Do you "Pin" applications to the Start Menus and/or Taskbar for all users? Anything else? Cheers for your feedback team! Oh, I ashamed to say our Active Directory is running on a Win2000 but has been adprep'd to Win2003.
machin05 Posted January 15, 2010 Author Posted January 15, 2010 The first thing I've noticed is the Adobe Reader 9.3 doesn't work!
DMcCoy Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 The first thing I've noticed is the Adobe Reader 9.3 doesn't work! Does it crash with a runtime error?
machin05 Posted January 15, 2010 Author Posted January 15, 2010 Does it crash with a runtime error? Yeah, about 30 seconds after it loads. I've uninstalled it now and downloaded a free pdf viewer called PDF-XChange which seems to be working without a hitch. Has anyone got desktop wallpaper working via GPO? I've got a jpg on a shared network area and setup a GPO to set it as the desktop wallpaper, but the desktop is just black. If I Right Click on the desktop and go to personalize, it shows the jpg as being the Desktop Background and even displays the thumbnail but my actual desktop is jet black.... http://www.lordswoodgirls.co.uk/files/desktop.jpg
mrbios Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 How you handle the potential of 100s of users (with regard to profiles)? In XP I set up a users profile, then when I'm happy with it I copy it to the "Default User" profile and every user that logs on to the pc has a local profile created using the Default User as a template. Manadatory profiles for student and teachers with roaming profiles for admin staff Do you lock down your Start Menus and Desktops - how do you populate these with the appropriate shortcuts? Redirected start menu and desktops from a DFS share How do you handle Libraries - do you redirect the "Documents" library to a Users home directory on the network? Using a registry hack ive completely removed libraries and all it's links - the normal documents links remain and are redirected to there home folders Do you have custom default User Icons, Wallpapers, Login Screens that apply to all users or groups of users? Wallpaper is taken from a network share and set my GP - Going to make a custom logon screen with the school logo eventually Do you "Pin" applications to the Start Menus and/or Taskbar for all users? Everything removed, i hide everything but the clock - minimalist look and minimal fuss with minimal amount of little ones trying to mess with things some icons can do Has anyone got desktop wallpaper working via GPO? I've got a jpg on a shared network area and setup a GPO to set it as the desktop wallpaper, but the desktop is just black. If I Right Click on the desktop and go to personalize, it shows the jpg as being the Desktop Background and even displays the thumbnail but my actual desktop is jet black.... Set the wallpaper GPO, login, then logoff set the GP to disabled and it'll work - that worked for me anyway
cromertech Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 Had huge problems with the desktop background but you can look at these links to maybe help with the user profile. Any pinned items on the taskbar of the default profile appear on the users. (I've pinned word and excel after speaking with the head of ICT) How To Copy Profile In Windows 7 for Default Domain NETLOGON - Ben O'Sullivan Works Wallpaper via Group Policy and Windows 7 I haven't yet tested this. My start menu is current redirected as it was in xp. Not done libraries yet but documents is redirected to home folder share. By default Music Videos and Picture follow. I've aslo redirected the favourites folder so that everyone has the same links although this may need to be changed because i think Y11 have to be able to create favourites for GCSE
DMcCoy Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 Yeah, about 30 seconds after it loads. I've uninstalled it now and downloaded a free pdf viewer called PDF-XChange which seems to be working without a hitch. Check the following folders exist in the users profile: %UserProfile%\AppData\LocalLow %UserProfile%\AppData\LocalLow\Adobe %UserProfile%\AppData\LocalLow\Adobe\Acrobat %UserProfile%\AppData\LocalLow\Adobe\Acrobat\9.0
machin05 Posted January 15, 2010 Author Posted January 15, 2010 Cheers all, Some good advice there... keep it coming! @DMcCoy I reinstalled Adobe Reader and added those Adobe folders but I'm still getting the same problem. I've attached a screen shot below... any ideas http://www.lordswoodgirls.co.uk/files/adobe.jpg
DMcCoy Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 It's odd that it is still crashing, that error can either be redirected appdata or missing locallow, at least that's what I've had with 9.2 on Vista. Does the user have a local profile or a roaming one? I'm not sure what it would be if those other issues are ruled out.
mrbios Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 How are you lot doing deployment? as i don't like sysprep (won't go into explaning it) and seeing as NewSID isnt being updated to allow for windows 7 compatibility im a bit undecided on how to do it, any suggestions?
machin05 Posted January 15, 2010 Author Posted January 15, 2010 It's odd that it is still crashing, that error can either be redirected appdata or missing locallow, at least that's what I've had with 9.2 on Vista. Does the user have a local profile or a roaming one? I'm not sure what it would be if those other issues are ruled out. It's a local profile and I've setup the following path C:\Users\tech\AppData\LocalLow\Adobe\Acrobat\9.0 The folders in red didn't exist. Is there anything else I can check?
DMcCoy Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 Sysprep really is what you want to use as it does other thing along with the SID. One tip: In Vista/7 you can use pnputil from the command prompt to install drivers for non present devices. This also means that unsigned drivers are installed into the driverstore. I've used it to add nividia and HDD drivers before imaging when they didn't work when deploying via WDS.
DMcCoy Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 It's a local profile and I've setup the following path C:\Users\tech\AppData\LocalLow\Adobe\Acrobat\9.0 The folders in red didn't exist. Is there anything else I can check? I'm afraid I don't know any other fixes, it may be 9.3 or 7 specific. The only other thing you could try is running as administrator.
machin05 Posted January 15, 2010 Author Posted January 15, 2010 Set the wallpaper GPO, login, then logoff set the GP to disabled and it'll work - that worked for me anyway Cheers for your suggestions. I've tried to disable the GP but nothing changed. How would this approach work with a GP that is used by 100s of users on 100s of pcs at different times of the day? When do you have the policy enabled, and conversely, when do you have it disabled?
gshaw Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 Using a registry hack ive completely removed libraries and all it's links - the normal documents links remain and are redirected to there home folders Can I have that reg hack please, the Libaries are driving me crackers on my Win 7 PC in the office... who thought they were a good idea for domained machines
mrbios Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 Cheers for your suggestions. I've tried to disable the GP but nothing changed. How would this approach work with a GP that is used by 100s of users on 100s of pcs at different times of the day? When do you have the policy enabled, and conversely, when do you have it disabled? Well this is in a test environment at the moment, im assuming as microsoft know about the issue that it will be fixed by the summer (the time im planning to roll it out) the link cromertech posted about a possible fix i think i may have set on this test machine as well which didnt initially work until i did the above Just as an update to that problem now though, i have the GP set and the wallpaper is working, don't ask me how! lol Can I have that reg hack please, the Libaries are driving me crackers on my Win 7 PC in the office... who thought they were a good idea for domained machines This hack will remove the “Network” section from windows explorer navigation pane: You may need to create the Dword yourself. HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\NonEnum] {F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}"=dword:00000001 This hack will remove all traces of the libraries folders: This hack must be run on the local machine Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{2112AB0A-C86A-4ffe-A368-0DE96E47012E}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{491E922F-5643-4af4-A7EB-4E7A138D8174}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{7b0db17d-9cd2-4a93-9733-46cc89022e7c}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{A302545D-DEFF-464b-ABE8-61C8648D939B}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{A990AE9F-A03B-4e80-94BC-9912D7504104}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel] “{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}”=- This hack will remove items from the Favourites section of the navigation pane: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder And delete both Attributes and PinToNameSpaceTree I think that's all of it, the middle one is the only one for the libraries, the rest are things i have used to lock down student machines access which may be useful
machin05 Posted January 15, 2010 Author Posted January 15, 2010 I've added the reg keys as suggested in that link, but I've yet to see my beautiful desktop wallpaper, whether the GP is disabled or enabled... This may just have to be put on ice for a while The only ray of light is that I can see the wallpaper for a brief second if I log off the VM with the GP enabled!! Still no joy with Adobe Reader either...
machin05 Posted January 15, 2010 Author Posted January 15, 2010 Well this is in a test environment at the moment, im assuming as microsoft know about the issue that it will be fixed by the summer (the time im planning to roll it out) the link cromertech posted about a possible fix i think i may have set on this test machine as well which didnt initially work until i did the above Just as an update to that problem now though, i have the GP set and the wallpaper is working, don't ask me how! lol This hack will remove the “Network” section from windows explorer navigation pane: You may need to create the Dword yourself. HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\NonEnum] {F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}"=dword:00000001 This hack will remove all traces of the libraries folders: This hack must be run on the local machine Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{2112AB0A-C86A-4ffe-A368-0DE96E47012E}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{491E922F-5643-4af4-A7EB-4E7A138D8174}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{7b0db17d-9cd2-4a93-9733-46cc89022e7c}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{A302545D-DEFF-464b-ABE8-61C8648D939B}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions\{A990AE9F-A03B-4e80-94BC-9912D7504104}] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel] “{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}”=- This hack will remove items from the Favourites section of the navigation pane: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder And delete both Attributes and PinToNameSpaceTree I think that's all of it, the middle one is the only one for the libraries, the rest are things i have used to lock down student machines access which may be useful For some reason, the reg file didn't seem to have any affect on the libraries - they're still all there, clear as day... Not going my way so far!!
Lettuce Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 Install a stripped down version and take some time going through all the options to disable unwanted stuff running.
machin05 Posted January 15, 2010 Author Posted January 15, 2010 Install a stripped down version and take some time going through all the options to disable unwanted stuff running. Could you elaborate please mate? I got the reg file working. It didn't like being run from a network location, so I copied it to the desktop and ran it from there.
mrbios Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 If that didn't work try the attached files, there the originals i downloaded in the first placeDisable Libraries in Windows 7.zip
stuartp44 Posted January 17, 2010 Posted January 17, 2010 The typical black background is caused by a missing or empty registry key, to fix this what i did was using group policy client side prefrences registry Updated the registry key HKCU > Control Panel > Desktop > Wallpaper key with a none empty path (Which for some reason was empty when every student logged in). So what should exist is a REG_SZ key that has a valid path to a image that will be used for the background, for example: Reg Name: Wallpaper Reg Type: REG_SZ Data: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper.jpg (You can use you netlogon share for this) This fixed my issue and has caused no problems since 1
pritchardavid Posted January 17, 2010 Posted January 17, 2010 (edited) Best bet is to remove Adobe Reader I had this problem before, changed to Foxit reader instead, much smaller install, and quicker to startup, and no horrible startup exes from it. Much better! What I need to know is how to revmove the sidebar in the windows explorer windows, and some of tools ontop, like system properties, Uninstall or chance a programe, map network drive, open control panel, also there was something about wireless somewhere on that too. Just want organize to stay there Edited January 17, 2010 by pritchardavid
machin05 Posted January 18, 2010 Author Posted January 18, 2010 The typical black background is caused by a missing or empty registry key, to fix this what i did was using group policy client side prefrences registry Updated the registry key HKCU > Control Panel > Desktop > Wallpaper key with a none empty path (Which for some reason was empty when every student logged in). So what should exist is a REG_SZ key that has a valid path to a image that will be used for the background, for example: Reg Name: Wallpaper Reg Type: REG_SZ Data: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper.jpg (You can use you netlogon share for this) This fixed my issue and has caused no problems since I'll give this a go and post my results here... Cheers
machin05 Posted January 18, 2010 Author Posted January 18, 2010 Best bet is to remove Adobe Reader I had this problem before, changed to Foxit reader instead, much smaller install, and quicker to startup, and no horrible startup exes from it. Much better! What I need to know is how to revmove the sidebar in the windows explorer windows, and some of tools ontop, like system properties, Uninstall or chance a programe, map network drive, open control panel, also there was something about wireless somewhere on that too. Just want organize to stay there Yeah, that's what I did initially. I use PDF XViewer, which is also a freebie and seems stable.
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