How do "you" set up your windows 7 machines?

[Winner]

For those who are having problems with Adobe Reader 9.x and roaming profiles, please see the URL in my next post. We use folder redirection for our staff AppData directories, after making the permission changes referred to in this article we now have the program working.

[Winner]

Fix for Adobe Reader 9.x and AppData folder redirection from Adobe forums

[machin05]

Latest little irksome problem I've run in to is the Default User Account picture that displays at the login screen.

 

I've created an 128x128 user.bmp file and copied it into c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\

I've enabled the correct option in GPO - Computer Config > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > User Accounts - "Apply the default logon picture to all users"

 

I've checked the corresponding registry entry on the Windows 7 machine, which indicates that the setting is being pulled down. HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer - "UseDefaultTile=1"

 

Now, whomever I log on as, has the correct icon at the top of the start menu

http://www.lordswoodgirls.co.uk/files/startmenu.jpg

 

but (and more importantly for me) there is a blank frame at the logon screen

http://www.lordswoodgirls.co.uk/files/loginscreen.jpg

 

Am I asking too much for the default user.bmp to be used here too?

 

On another note, can anyone tell me the name of the MMC snap-in that lets you see what settings from Group Policy are applied to your PC?

[6Foot2]

Ok so I have some queries here.

 

1. Student desktop redirection works but Start Menu redirection does not. What do I do to make this work?

 

2. Staff Desktop and Start Menu for Staff is not working at all [?]

 

I would like to display the Domain drop down list [our Staff logon to one domain and Students another]

 

Thanks.

 

Edit: Student Domain Controller: Windows Server: 2008

Staff Domain Controller: Windows Server: 2003.

Edited January 20, 2010 by 6Foot2

[tommej]

machin05 I can't help you, but that is looking wicked!

[SYNACK]

 

Now, whomever I log on as, has the correct icon at the top of the start menu

 

 

but (and more importantly for me) there is a blank frame at the logon screen

 

 

Am I asking too much for the default user.bmp to be used here too?

I know I solved this one on Vista but can't remember how just now, will try to remember to check it out and post back the solution.

 

On another note, can anyone tell me the name of the MMC snap-in that lets you see what settings from Group Policy are applied to your PC?

 

RSoP.msc - Resultant Set of Policy

[machin05]

Nice one, cheers mate

[tommej]

Have you tried this? i'm tempted to give it ago but replacing dll's seems abit risky :s! Apparently it HAS to be a 24-bit bmp for it to work.

 

In order to add a logo to the frame you must first take ownership of C:\Windows\System32\authui.dll. You can do this by doing the following using explorer, navigate to the System32 folder, right click on authui.dll, click on properties, click on the security tab, click on advanced, click on the Owner tab, click on the Administrators group, then click apply. Click on the permissions tab, click on administrators, click on edit, tick the allow box for the full control permission, click OK on any remaining dialog boxes.

 

Using the resource editor open the authui.dll file, browse to bitmap, then to 12223. Then you want to export/save the file as a bmp file.

 

Open both your desired image and the bmp file in the bmp editor. Resize your desired image to roughly 120x120. Copy the image to the picture frame and position as desired. Once everything is the way you want, save the file.

 

In the resource editor again, you want to replace the 12223 bitmap with the custom image created. After this is done, save authui.dll and you should be able to see the effects immediately, if not reboot.

Edited January 21, 2010 by tommej

[machin05]

Have you tried this? i'm tempted to give it ago but replacing dll's seems abit risky :s! Apparently it HAS to be a 24-bit bmp for it to work.

 

Do you know of a reliable Resource Editor?

[Tunster]

Do you know of a reliable Resource Editor?

 

ResEdit

 

ResEdit Resource Editor - free resource editor for Win32

 

By the way, that log-on screen looks immense! May try and dabble at it myself when I get some free time.

[machin05]

ResEdit

 

ResEdit Resource Editor - free resource editor for Win32

 

By the way, that log-on screen looks immense! May try and dabble at it myself when I get some free time.

 

Nice one, cheers!

 

I acquired the background from this website and just positioned our transparent school logo on top in photoshop. Piece of cake but a vast improvement on the xp login...

[machin05]

I'm probably being blind here, but I can't seem to extract/export the bmp file out of the authui.dll using Resedit. I can't seem to find the command to do this... Any pointers?

[tommej]

I used the free trial of Resource Editor: Open and Edit EXE and DLL files, Change Icons, Dialogs, Version Info, Menu, DFM, Strings, AVI. to have a little play.

 

Edit: Right click on the bmp and I think there was an option to save or export, i forget!

[tommej]

Gave this a go earlier and it wouldn't let me overwrite the dll, access denied! Will give it another go tomorrow.

[machin05]

Gave this a go earlier and it wouldn't let me overwrite the dll, access denied! Will give it another go tomorrow.

 

Same here. I wrote it to a new dll on my desktop then replaced the file in system32, however now the Win7 machine boots to a black screen with mouse cursor...

 

Thank VM for snapshot though eh!?

[tommej]

I think that happens when the bmp you insert isn't 24bit!

[Sirbendy]

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

 

Here's a tip. Run it in compatibility mode for all users, in XPSP2 emulation.

 

Works fine then - using it here.

[DrCheese]

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?

 

Creating an image with our "fat" applications on (Office/CS4/Sims/UltraVNC) and then using MDT2010 with WDS(to boot the litetouch.wim) It works pretty much the same way as the old RIS system (you can name PC's before they image). It is pretty overwhelming at first tho if your used to XP deployment.

 

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\Tra nscodedWallpaper.jpg (You can use you netlogon share for this)

 

This fixed my issue and has caused no problems since

 

This issue occurs when you copy a profile to "Default user" without generalising the image first. It is no longer supported to just copy a profile over the top of default user, as this leaves a ton of userdata in the profile.

How to customize default user profiles in Windows 7

 

I would like to display the Domain drop down list [our Staff logon to one domain and Students another

Isn't possible anymore I'm afraid, the most you can do is set a default domain so they can just type a username, or failing that teach users to log on using either domain\user or user@domain

[machin05]

I think that happens when the bmp you insert isn't 24bit!

 

All the bmps I've tried are 24 bit though...

 

This is going to defeat me I think. Unless anyone can offer some advice?

 

EDIT: Reading this, amongst other articles on the web, it appears that what I'm trying to achieve can't be done.

Edited January 22, 2010 by machin05

[machin05]

How to customize default user profiles in Windows 7

Cheers for that link. Very useful...

[DrCheese]

Cheers for that link. Very useful...

 

No problem, it does suck tho how you have to sysprep the entire machine now to make a default user tho Why they couldn't include a tool to do it without is beyond me.

[Nick_Parker]

No problem, it does suck tho how you have to sysprep the entire machine now to make a default user tho Why they couldn't include a tool to do it without is beyond me.

 

I agree, 1 step forward, 2 steps back...

[oliphanj]

You guys might want to give this a try.. It works great..

 

Sysprep a Windows 7 Machine ? Start to Finish V2 - Blog.BrianLeeJackson.com

 

Thanks,

Jason

[mac_shinobi]

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?

 

Permissions on the new directories you created to ensure that the students and members of staff will have full control or relevant permissions on those directories

[mac_shinobi]

I'm probably being blind here, but I can't seem to extract/export the bmp file out of the authui.dll using Resedit. I can't seem to find the command to do this... Any pointers?

 

resource hacker

 

Resource Hacker

 

Not sure if it works with *.dll file though ??

Edited February 4, 2010 by mac_shinobi