Wallpaper - how do you manage yours?

[Halfmad]

We have the usual problem of kids changing the desktop backgrounds, rather than just set it to one image that never changes I was hoping to have a few I could alternate between.

 

Is anyone doing something like this at the moment? I want any wallpaper I do set to be forced and unchangable, but will alter it now and then just to spruce things up.

 

There's a few threads around about setting the wallpaper but I couldn't find any about changing it regularly.

[Halfmad]

Oops just found this in another thread!

Here: http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7391&highlight=wallpaper

 

sub SetWallPaper

dim i,j, oShell, oFSO

set oShell=createobject("wscript.shell")

set oFSO=createobject("scripting.filesystemobject")

randomize

set oFolder=ofso.getfolder("\\student\repl\bitmaps")

redim sFiles(1)

i=0

for each ofile in oFolder.files

sName=lcase(oFile.name)

if right(sName,3)="bmp" then

sFiles(i)=oFile.name

i=i+1

redim preserve sFiles(i)

end if

next

j=rnd*i

ofso.copyfile "\\student\repl\bitmaps\" & sFiles(j),"c:\windows\student.bmp",true

 

sRegPath="HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop\"

x=oShell.regwrite(sRegPath & "Wallpaper","C:\windows\student.bmp","REG_SZ")

x=oShell.regwrite(sRegPath & "WallpaperStyle","2","REG_DWORD")

x=oShell.regwrite(sRegPath & "TileWallPaper","0","REG_DWORD")

end sub

[Firefly_Transport]

ah well fortantly we have RANGER, so we just lock it down to the group in question.

 

I find having a clearly visable differance between groups/years is also very useful - it means that Teachers can see anybody on as some body they shouldn't be.

 

We also use it to display students on restriction for mucking about - again makes it simpler for the teacher to tell if the student is/been a problem online.

[Behuck]

FireFly_Transport,

 

Begging your pardon, but what is RANGER? :?:

[Firefly_Transport]

FireFly_Transport,

 

Begging your pardon, but what is RANGER? :?:

 

RANGER is a product by Sentinal that plugs itself into the AD. It allows you control just about everything and get reports about just about everything.

 

Its not too expensive off bat, with a yearly 1K for 300PC support. you also get free upgrades. Its not for everybody and it will not work for Thin-Client.

 

It can also be a royal pain in the ass if it screws with a roaming profile.

 

I like it, but wouldn't say its for the fainhearted

[Andie]

We don't have Ranger, but we use mandatory desktop profiles for both teachers and pupils. I have set up one profile for each group with a different coloured background for each. This is really useful for instantly knowing when a teacher has logged in and then left the room without logging off or locking the machine! Users can still change their wallpaper while logged on, but once logged off the changes are lost. If you need info on profiles, go to the Edugeek Wiki using the link on the left hand side of this or click on the link below:

 

http://www.russdev.com/edugeek/doku.php?id=profiles

[Halfmad]

Cheers Andie lots of useful info

[srochford]

Oops just found this in another thread!

Here: http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7391&highlight=wallpaper

 

 

That looks familiar :-)

 

It was designed to set the wallpaper used at machine startup (ie the one behind the login box) but it would be easy to change it do put the user wallpaper in place. Key bit is

 

sRegPath="HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop\"

x=oShell.regwrite(sRegPath & "Wallpaper","C:\windows\student.bmp","REG_SZ")

 

- this is changing the registry for the default user; you need to change it for the current user:

 

sRegPath="HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\"

x=oShell.regwrite(sRegPath & "Wallpaper","C:\windows\student.bmp","REG_SZ")

[Andie]

Just found some possibly relevant stuff in Group Policy on Server 2003, so thought I would add here. I am new to Group Policy settings, so this comes with a warning to test first as some of what I found I haven't tried! Also, sorry if you all know this already!!

 

Firstly, there is a setting to prevent users changing wallpaper using Display Properties in:

 

User Configuration>Administrative Templates>Control Panel>Display>Prevent Changing Wallpaper

 

As far as I can tell, it doesn't stop someone right clicking an image file and choosing Set as Background, though, which is the way most students would change wallpaper. As I said earlier, we use a mandatory profile with a desktop wallpaper set, so any changes made to wallpaper by a pupil or teacher are lost as soon as they logoff.

 

Secondly, there is an Active Desktop setting that appears to allow you to set a wallpaper for a whole group by editing in the name of an image file. You have to have Active Desktop enabled in Group Policy for this to work, I think, and I'm not sure what knock-on effects this would have on other desktop settings so haven't tried it. Also, you would presumably need to store the image file somewhere shared with adequate permissions. I suppose someone could design their own school logo based wallpaper, and put on something to distinguish between user groups to show who was logged on... And if you wanted to have a few different wallpapers to alternate between, then this would make changing them easier. Anyway I thought someone may find this info useful, so it is at:

 

User Configuration>Administrative Templates>Desktop>Active Desktop>Active Desktop Wallpaper (and the setting to enable Active Desktop is in the same section).

[Guest]

Here I use GPO to set the wallpaper to a bmp that is located on the workstation. I find this works better for setting the wallpaper for machines with differnt screen res.

 

If I want to change the wallpaper i just copy the new one to the workstations via a script.

 

As for the logon wallpaper that is set via a single registry entry

 

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]

"Wallpaper"="%location of wallpaper%"