I have a gremlin....possibly profile gremlin

[Little-Miss]

Ok i wiil try my best to describe this.

 

I know its happens around the school, dont think its all machines/users but its a few. Only staff as far as im aware too.

 

User logs onto machine, now im not sure whether this happens before or after "apply settings" etc but it just hangs and stays on a plain blue (usual windows blue) background. The only cure is to hold down the power button to turn the machine off and then on again and they usually log in successfully this time round. This can also happen at log off to...where the screen clears of icons, start menu etc goes blue and just hangs.

 

Teachers profiles are roaming....redirected desktop.

 

This little pest needs to be hunted down and destroyed!

 

Anything you need to know ask!

 

[glennda]

Where are the desktops redirected from? have you checked this server? also are there any folder redirection errors from the previous login attempt on either client or server.

[pete]

".....and how much stuff do they have on their desktops?"

[Little-Miss]

Will get answer glennda's questions as soon as i can...

 

Pete: well they just have shortcuts on their desktop, all exactly the same.

[timzim]

Any redirection errors will be noted in the machines' error logs.

 

Did you change anything on the machines recently? Updated internet Explorer to IE8? (I only ask because that gave us no end of errors so we had to roll it back to stop them, grrr).

[pete]

Does an affected user user get it on every machine?

Or every machine they don't normally log onto?

 

Have you cleared out the local cache of an affected users profile?

Have you checked their profile for directory depth issues? (Long filenames + deep folder tree).

[Little-Miss]

back again now its quiet!

 

Gremlin is still kicking about. Its definately a profile thing as when i delete their profile its recreated and they are good for a while but then it comes back.

 

It only affects a handful of people.

 

Cant see any errors on the logs of either this machine or the server. :/

[Domino]

If when this happens you launch task manager, then kill and restart explorer, does the desktop appear?

 

I wonder if its a shell extension thats installed something in the profile?

 

just an idea..

[Little-Miss]

That is an idea, but ive never had the opportunity to as when ive seen it happen its with users accounts that are locked down so cant get into task manager...

 

Say it was that....how would it be fixed?

[Domino]

its normally a total pain, shell extensions can be a mare to track down.

 

but what you'd wanna do is see if they have any browser extensions or bits that other users who don't have this problem don't have.

 

Of course I could be barking up the wrong tree....

[gizmo2005]

when ever a problem happens my kind always get the blame..... it hurts us gremlins have feelings too....

 

Love gizmo

[Little-Miss]

Aww! But im talking about the green slimey ones that mess up your cables and cause profile issues!! Not cute fuzzy Gizmo ones!!!

[gizmo2005]

feels better now

[Domino]

anyway - you're a mogwai

[gizmo2005]

i am but we still get called gremlins

[Mr.Ben]

That is an idea, but ive never had the opportunity to as when ive seen it happen its with users accounts that are locked down so cant get into task manager...

 

Say it was that....how would it be fixed?

 

 

Hi Little Miss,

 

Download Process Explorer from Sys Internals (Well Microsoft Now!), put it on a pen drive and run it from there whilst the user is logged in. It's better than task manager.

 

If your profiles are locked down to only allow certain executables, rename procexp.exe to winword.exe..........