Default profile modifications?

[volt26]

Hey there.. My question might have been answered somewhere but after a quick search in the forums I couldn't find anything that clearly fits my question so here it is :

 

I have over 500 computers that I use a sysprep win7 image on. I used the copyprofile TRUE feature in my unattend.xml file to quickly have a default profile fitting my needs on all the computers. So far so good.

 

But what can I do if I want to do a specific change (something more advanced that simply adding an icon somewhere of course) to the default profile? It seems Microsoft doesn't want us to deal with profile copying anymore.. I know I can work around this with tools like windowsenabler. But I wish to remain Microsoft certified to avoid future problems (that to be honest, I never met so far when using windows enabler anyways).

 

So...

 

What can I do? I want to avoid spending huge amounts of time scripting reg changes over and over. Especially because that specific script would need to run over and over on each reboot (we have deepfreeze).

 

Some suggestions for a quick and easy solution would be cool. Thank you very much!

[pseu]

You mean like adding a logon script for a specific OU, or group?

[Admiral208]

log on as a local user > make the changes > log on as administrator > copy local users profile and rename to default user

[pseu]

Doing that on 500 systems would suck.

 

I think "But what can I do if I want to do a specific change (something more advanced that simply adding an icon somewhere of course) to the default profile?" needs to be more specific.

 

SCCM can be used to make changes, but sometimes just adding a logon script for a week and then removing it is enough.

[Admiral208]

If you need to make changes to 500 machnines, do it through group policy.

 

If you need to make more specific changes (i.e. to a single machine) then you can do it the other way.

[volt26]

Doing that on 500 systems would suck.

 

I think "But what can I do if I want to do a specific change (something more advanced that simply adding an icon somewhere of course) to the default profile?" needs to be more specific.

 

SCCM can be used to make changes, but sometimes just adding a logon script for a week and then removing it is enough.

 

 

Thanks to you and the others for your replies but unfortunately, my situation is a bit different (I think). I do not need to change all computers at once.. Actually.. It is just that sometimes, a teacher will request a specific change like installing some application and configuring it in a very specific way (default save location, nag screen removed, appearance, language, etc..). BUT...

 

1st) we have Deepfreeze on all computers. This program will reset the computer's configuration to what it was when it was froze. It means you can basically do anything to it (install apps, viruses, delete stuff, etc) and within a single reboot, everything is back to what it was meant to be. In schools, this kind of thing is a huge relief for us.

 

2nd) Let's say I installed WordQ (app that reads aloud a text). Well, of course, I begin with unfreezing the computer and then I install the app. Back in winXP times, I was able to configure everything in WordQ and then copy the profile I configured WordQ with to the default profile. All students and teachers later login in this comp would then get the proper configuration. Otherwise, they get silly stuff like nag screens, requests to select what folder should their profile be saved on (if WordQ is being used for the first time) and so on.

 

With Win7, things have changed.. I figured out I can use windows enabler to achieve the same thing. And it works! But Microsoft says I may end up having very random troubles when I use this method. So the alternative is to SCRIPT all these changes (example : .inf file modified in specific %userprofile% directory, reg keys added/modified in current user folder tree, etc.. But this task consumes MUCH MORE time than simply copying a profile like in the good old days AND the script would need to run over and over each time a user logs in because, remember, it is frozen by DeepFreeze. In the long run, there would be so many tweaks running in my script for a computer that it could even take a few seconds to process the whole thing. A few seconds isn't much but.. It is ridiculous to run a script over and over when the old way didnt require that.

 

I hope my clarifications better describes my situation. Thank you for reading my wall of text

[Admiral208]

Can't you just replace the default profile on a Windows 7 machine?

[pseu]

I am not familiar with Deep Freeze, so I am sure you know better than me.

 

Is the problem not wanting to take the time to write the scripts, or is it the scripts actually running? If you were to create logon scripts or policy preferences that were added to the user account, or user policy on the system would this solve the problem?

 

Maybe you could create a security group that contains students enrolled in that class and apply the policy to it.

 

If this were the case it would only happen when users enrolled in this specific class were using the systems. It would delay their logon times, but from my experience they will likely want frequent changes made each term, or even during the term which would make a more static method un reasonable.

 

 

 

Does deep freeze revert everything back to the baseline on start-up, log-in, or even while the person is logged in? Is there a way to change when it reverts everything back?

 

This method may delay logins, but the teachers getting the systems the way they want them for their classes may make them ok with this.

[Duke5A]

Your script doesn't have to run over and over because of Deep Freeze. You can schedule actions in the DF console and have the machines wake up at night and go into maintenance mode for a couple hours. You can then create your scripts and set them up as a start up script in Group Policy, apply it to an OU, and the script will run at night when the machines are thawed. When the maintenance period is over they'll reboot frozen again. After a night or two, you can remove policy from the OU.

[DrCheese]

Just a heads up, if you want to modify the default profile on a ton of machines, just copy the modified default user to your \\domain\netlogon share.

Default user for XP

Default User.v2 for Windows Vista/7

 

Whenever a new user logs on to a computer they will have a profile created based on that. It will also get around your problem with deep freeze resetting the local default profile

[volt26]

Just a heads up, if you want to modify the default profile on a ton of machines, just copy the modified default user to your \\domain\netlogon share.

Default user for XP

Default User.v2 for Windows Vista/7

 

Whenever a new user logs on to a computer they will have a profile created based on that. It will also get around your problem with deep freeze resetting the local default profile

 

Very interesting.. Is it possible to save the default profile to a local folder instead? Also.. How can I order win7 to load the default profile from THAT specific folder instead of the one it loads by default?

 

thank you very much

[morganw]

You could set the profile location of a user to be a local folder on a workstation, you'd just have to make sure that the folder existed on all your workstations. Or you could make a generic mandatory profile and get it picked up from the netlogon share or from a user's profile location field in AD. I've found that a bare-bones W7 profile means a long logon time though but, as you say, the Windows Enabler route doesn't look the most stable route to go. For a terminal server session you can use loopback processing to change the profile location via GPO but unfortunately their isn't an equivalent for a regular profile.