marco84 Posted February 19, 2007 Posted February 19, 2007 Can anyone tell me where i can find the reg key that i can change to enforce windows classic style for all users. Ive had a quick on google but couldnt come up with the right results. (Win XP Table Edition)!!!! Thanks.
timbo343 Posted February 19, 2007 Posted February 19, 2007 Im sure its in GP somewhere.. Configuring the desktop theme If you are hosting the full desktop with Terminal Server, by default the desktop environment resembles a Windows Classic desktop. By default Windows Server 2003 does not have themes enabled. You can enable themes by starting the Themes service and configuring it to start automatically. For more information about starting the Themes service, see "Configure how a service is started" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003. After you have configured the Themes service to start automatically, you can enforce a specific desktop theme or the Windows XP theme for your Terminal Server users by using the following procedure. For more information about choosing to use desktop themes with Terminal Server, see "Hosting Full Desktops with Terminal Server" earlier in this chapter. To load a specific theme for the desktop 1. In the Group Policy Object Editor, navigate to User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Control Panel/Display/Desktop Themes. 2. Open the Load a specific visual style file or force Windows Classic setting. 3. Take one of the following actions, depending on what you are trying to achieve: • To force Windows Classic, enable this setting. • To load the Windows XP theme, enable the setting and type %windir%\resources\Themes\Luna\Luna.msstyles in the Path to Visual Style dialog box. For information about using the Windows XP theme with Terminal Server, see "Choosing Applications to Host" earlier in this chapter. • To load another theme or a custom theme, type the path to that theme in the dialog box. Got from http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/a3c78eb9-92fe-42f5-98ad-ae4ad1abe4c21033.mspx?mfr=true
marco84 Posted February 19, 2007 Author Posted February 19, 2007 Thanks for that Tim, I already know how to do it in GP....which would be very easy if i could do. But I have Desktop Authority imposed on me here and am not given access to GP by the LA. So thats why i need to do it by changing a reg key. Thanks.
timbo343 Posted February 19, 2007 Posted February 19, 2007 ah, i dont know about that then.. sorry, ive just been looking on google for you can doesnt seem to be anything,,, im sure someone will let you know
plexer Posted February 19, 2007 Posted February 19, 2007 How are you going to push out a registry fix then? Ben
marco84 Posted February 19, 2007 Author Posted February 19, 2007 Part of the access i have through Desktop Authority lets me set up shares and some security policies, but one of them isnt enforce classic shell. But i can use DA to edit reg keys. Also cant use DA to deploy MSI's but thats another story.
plexer Posted February 19, 2007 Posted February 19, 2007 So you don't have an administrator password for the DC then? Ben
marco84 Posted February 19, 2007 Author Posted February 19, 2007 I dont even have a DC....Its one big forest at my LA with DC and everything apart from file server all in there own data centre. I have set up my own downstream proxy (squid & DG) and have just got a new server that was meant for the KS3 online testing. We get a fancy web interface for our control over certain security policies, drive mappings etc etc.
marco84 Posted February 19, 2007 Author Posted February 19, 2007 Thanks Ben, its not the best system. But slowly and surely i'll start to introduce my own DC and start to move things back to in house systems.
Gatt Posted February 19, 2007 Posted February 19, 2007 I know where Mark is coming from here, as I'm in the same LA - DA is an absolute nightmare to work with Firstly, the DA Client needs the "Everyone" group to be added to local admins group just to allow the damn thing to run, if it doesn't then no policies are applied - no wallpaper, so drives, no desktops, nada nothing, so everything fails (IE, Email, SIMS, etc) The other thing with DA is with the staff machines (which im currently forced to use) - if you jion the PC to the wrong LA domain (it has 3) then it auto creates a file called SLBYPASS which, as it the name suggests bypasses DA (or ScriptLogic) again nothing will run. It took me ages to get the LA to tell us that we were joining the machines to the wrong domain. Now, DA does have some nice tools, But i will be steering clear of it as it completely fraks up GP's if anything goes wrong. Ages ago, our school pulled the kids LAN off DA and onto our own DC - now i have complete control of the kids GPs they all get applied and i certainly don't need to ensure that they are members of local admins (which IIRC, was the case for the kids's DA to run as well!!) Mark, any luck convincing your school to pull the plug on the LA yet?
marco84 Posted February 20, 2007 Author Posted February 20, 2007 Its an eventual / enevitable progression anyway with BSF and the outsourcing of IT. The school have put up with the current system so far because before they didnt have the technical expertise to 'go it alone'. Im looking at working with one of our suppliers to help with the migration away from DA, just to make the whole process as quick and painless as possible.
Busybub Posted February 20, 2007 Posted February 20, 2007 This wot you're looking for?: http://www.theeldergeek.com/force_use_of_classic_start_menu.htm
Mr_T Posted February 20, 2007 Posted February 20, 2007 Also i think you can turn off the themes service and you get the classic interface.
marco84 Posted February 20, 2007 Author Posted February 20, 2007 Thanks for the link Busybub, i'll have a look into it later.
Busybub Posted February 20, 2007 Posted February 20, 2007 Just had another look and seems it operates on HKEY_current user. I remember struggling to change the setting for something else on this key (worked for me, not for them), so I would be interested to know if you have any luck. Otherwise, if that doesn't work, the other way would be to create a new local user and set up the interface as required, then copy that user profile to the default user folder in documents and settings. Delete all existing user profiles, and when they next log in they will pick up the new default setting.
Geoff Posted February 20, 2007 Posted February 20, 2007 The following will work as a machine startup script. sc config themes boot=disabled sc stop themes
marco84 Posted February 20, 2007 Author Posted February 20, 2007 Thanks Geoff, just stuck into another job at the moment but i'll be sure to give it a try later.
doyle.jack Posted February 20, 2007 Posted February 20, 2007 ...the DA Client needs the "Everyone" group to be added to local admins group just to allow the damn thing to run... This is certainly not true, Marco. I'm not sure why this is the case for you, but I would recommend contacting Technical Support to find out why it may not be working otherwise. One thing we promote with our product is the ability for the administrator to manage machines that the users do not have administrative access to. Before I came to work for ScriptLogic I worked for a healthcare organization that we managed with Desktop Authority. Our users certainly weren't members of the local admins group. As a matter of fact, the computers were extremely locked down to the point that the users couldn't do a single thing that wasn't necessary for them to complete their work. Again, if you are having an issue where the users need to be Admins on their machines for Desktop Authority to function, you certainly should call technical support and get that resolved. The only real requirement that I can think of that is even remotely related to what you are talking about is that File and Printer sharing must be enabled on the client machine. That is true and must be enabled. Otherwise, though, you may have a misconfiguration that Technical Support should look in to. Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can help you in any way. Regards, Jack Doyle, Systems Engineer ScriptLogic Corporation http://www.scriptlogic.com
doyle.jack Posted February 20, 2007 Posted February 20, 2007 Can anyone tell me where i can find the reg key that i can change to enforce windows classic style for all users. Ive had a quick on google but couldnt come up with the right results. (Win XP Table Edition)!!!! Thanks. The following will set it to classic, but will not FORCE it: Set the following key: Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System Set: "SetVisualStyle"="C:\\WINDOWS\\Resources\\Themes\\Windows Classic.theme" Hope this helps. Regards, Jack Doyle, Systems Engineer ScriptLogic Corporation http://www.scriptlogic.com
marco84 Posted February 20, 2007 Author Posted February 20, 2007 Thanks for the info but i really need to force classic style. Other problems have arisen recently Jack that you may be able to help with. Can i use DA to hide all icons in the systems tray other than the clock? Im sure this can be done in group policy, but not sure how i would go about this using DA other than possibly using ADM templates. Thanks
doyle.jack Posted February 20, 2007 Posted February 20, 2007 Thanks for the info but i really need to force classic style. Other problems have arisen recently Jack that you may be able to help with. Can i use DA to hide all icons in the systems tray other than the clock? Im sure this can be done in group policy, but not sure how i would go about this using DA other than possibly using ADM templates. Thanks I don't see how you would be able to disable those tray icons unless the application that they represent supports it. However, if they do, it is likely a setting in the registry or something, which you can set with DA. If you are referring to DA's own tray icons, I can help you with that. DA has, I believe, at max, three tray icons, the DA Agent, the DA Remote Agent, and the USB/Port Security icon. If I am missing any, my apologies. The DA Agent icon can be disabled in Global Options > Desktop Agent. The USB/Port security icon and the remote management icons can both be disabled in the actual elements where you deployed them. Hope this helps. Regards, Jack Doyle, Systems Engineer ScriptLogic Corporation http://www.scriptlogic.com
doyle.jack Posted February 20, 2007 Posted February 20, 2007 To force your classic Windows style make this policy change in either Desktop Authority's Group Policy Templates element or in your own Group Policy Object: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Display > Desktop Themes :: Load a specific visual style or force Windows Classic. Regards, Jack Doyle, Systems Engineer ScriptLogic Corporation http://www.scriptlogic.com
doyle.jack Posted February 20, 2007 Posted February 20, 2007 I did a little more researching for you. If you are talking about DA icons, I recommend what I already said. If you simply want to disable the tray, you can try the following registry hack. I'm not sure, though, if it disables the clock. I haven't tried it myself. Hive: KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Key: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer Name: NoTrayItemsDisplay Type: REG_DWORD Value: 1 (to hide) Regards, Jack Doyle, Systems Engineer ScriptLogic Corporation http://www.scriptlogic.com
plock Posted October 15, 2007 Posted October 15, 2007 Sorry to drag up an old post, I have a slight issue regarding deploying a Visual Style via GPO. I am aware that you can enforce visual styles via GPO and I'm using the current policy to do so: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Display > Desktop Theme Now I've set it up currently to look at: %windir%\resources\themes\luna\luna.msstyles However, I would like to set students too the 'Metallic' and staff too 'Homestead'. This is so staff can easily see when students have gained access using a staff logon account! (the little buggers) Anybody have any idea on creating the olive.msstyles and silver.msstyles files? Any help is greatly appreciated!
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