Desktop Icons script help

[tommccann]

Hey anyone have a script or software (free) that will copy all users/desktop

differential(ly) from a network location??

 

We tried redirected desktops but over wireless it slowed the login speed right down, the lovely children keep deleting the desktop icon and i would love an easy fix

 

Thanks in advance

[TechSupp]

Sorry to drag this back up but wondering if there was a script to do this? Very similar problem and a simpler solution would be to just copy the shortcuts from a shared location each time they logon, so looking for a scripts t do the same...anyone?

Would thnk I would need one to remove all shortcuts before copying the new ones at domain gpo level first?

[glennda]

have a login script do this

 

xcopy \\server\share\*.* "C:\documents and settings\%username%\desktop" /e /s /v (you will need to check the command line switches)

 

that would be perminant copy

 

if you want temporary then just add something like to a logout script

 

del C:\Documents and settings\%username%\desktop\*.*

 

if you want just a temporary one then you could add

[DEvans]

We redirect the desktops like you tried, however we lock them down to prevent deletion of the icons. If you are using profiles you can allocate a default desktop and they can have exclusive rights to their own desktop, allowing them to add and remove data. However, to keep things simple (from a backup pespective) we redirect all their documents to a certain location, so by locking down the desktop it forces them to save data in the "my documents", so when we backup we don't need to worry about different locations of data.

 

In my opinion, locking down the desktop and redirecting it is more ideal, as you can then manage which icons appear for certain users.

 

You can script it of course, depends on how many icons you want to add. I'm sure there is a point where the script will be so long, that a redirection might be the faster option.

 

Script method I've seen used

 

'Set a path to the executable on the computer for your chosen software in a constant

Const strSoftwareA = "C:\Program Files\Software\certainfile.filetype"

'Check if that software Exists on the computer using your Constant 

IF objFSO.FolderExists(strsoftwareA) = true Then

'If a certain file exists, that means it is installed and therefore we make the link
'The lnk file is a shortcut to the executable.

	MakeIcon "\SoftwareA.lnk", (strSoftwareA & "certainexe.exe"), "", "", (strSoftwareA & "certainexe.exe, 1"), "Software A Name", strSoftwareA

End If

Edited June 9, 2011 by DEvans

[ikmps]

Hi

 

we have mapped a drive letter in the login script (kix) use r: "\\server-pdc\pupil_desktop$" then redirected the desktop with gpo to the "R" drive and set the server share to read only for students.

 

seems to work on on wireless or wired

 

cheers

Paul

[DEvans]

Thats an interesting method paul, we just setup a direct share for the desktops.

 

e.g. For staff Redirect all users to one location --> \\servername\desktops\Staff

 

Then I stick all the software shortcuts into this folder, making sure they are shortcuts to the .exes on the local machine and not a .exe itself, that can cause all sorts of grief on a locked down system. Staff cannot add/delete any files to their desktops and if they want to do that I need to alter the policies to grant users exclusive access to their desktops, that way it saves in their roaming profile and doesn't mess around with my share.

 

Same for the Start menus

 

Redirect all users to one location --> \\servername\startmenu\staff\

 

(if you are using Windows XP make sure you redirect the start menu to the root (like mine above) and put a "programs" folder within that.

 

So for example I am redirecting to ..\startmenu\staff but inside that folder I have another folder called programs and then put my links into that, makes it nice and neat, doing it like that. Like it should look.

 

For Windows 7 though, thats a totally different ball game haha.