GoldenWonder

I've got a toshiba laptop that had Vista on it. It can't boot (it hangs basically) and the recovery console also hangs. I've put the the drive into a seperate PC and tried to scan the disk with chkdsk but all I get is either 'Cyclic redundancy error' or 'master file table corrupt'. Even running from a boot disk like bartPE cannot read the partition. Nothing seems to be able to read this drive even from a seperate PC, has anyone got past something like this? Otherwise I guess I'll have to ditch the drive!

Cheers for the info and ideas - looks like a script is the simplest way. Having said that, I've just tried a test account that has a mandatory profile and uses a minimal group policy and it wasn't any quicker logging in!

I'm tinkering with mandatory profiles to try and speed up our login times. Currently we use group policy to set all user's settings, and their local profile is created from the Default User profile. This all works fine, but I reckon using a mandatory profile in conjunction with a single, simple policy (for folder redirection etc) will help speed up these logins. However, one thing I can't seem to get around is printers. In our rooms each suite of PCs has the printer in the Default User profile - therefore anyone who logs in gets the right printers for that room, and all the associated policy settings. Is there a way around this if I use mandatory profiles? I did think of attaching printers using a login script, but that script would then need to know what room the user was logging into to connect the right printers? And if a PC/laptop has a local printer attached, will the user still get this with a mandatory profile?

I think removing the Run command in GP prevents this. But if you type a share path into Word and make it a hyperlink (i.e \\server\share) this still works.

I think I've got this working now thanks to everyones help. When I set the permissions to deny browsing the top folder (this folder only) but allow modify/delete etc to Subfolders and Files, the program cannot delete the file. Presumably because VB6 'browses' the folder to delete it. It can still open,edit and save though! If I set the program to read/write into a subfolder from the main folder using the same permissions as above then this works. Not exactly as I'd expect but it must also be something to do with the way VB6 deletes files. Cheers for the help on this one!

Sorry, I should also mention that the program reads a file in there first, then writes or deletes depending on the outcome. Turning off rights to browse the folder stops the program from opening the file in the first instance.

Yeah it looks like a re-write of the code, or finding another way altogether. Its a catch 22 situation, they need write access, but I want to stop write access

Unfortunately yes, unless I can find a way of making VB6 connect to a \\share using other credentials!

That won't really help, as their account needs to have delete/modify rights for the folder that is shared (the delete is done by a program running under their account) Its really to stop them browsing the folder and deleting the files manually

Not sure if this is even possible but I want to stop users accessing a hidden share by typing the share in Word (i.e \\server\share$) and browsing it. Now, I know I can use permissions to do this, but they need write access to this share (for a program than runs at login) but I don't want them to browse the share and delete files themselves! If they type \\server\share$ into Explorer its blocked, but Word etc doesn't stop them!

Yes I'm getting my sideshow and sidebars confused! Tried a different tack: Fresh install, but removing the PNY graphics card and replaced with Intel. Prepped the PC, installed all the required software etc but didn't join to the domain. Sysprep'd and....it worked! (yay!) So now I'm not sure whether a) the PCI-e graphics card was causing a wobbly, or b) joining it to the domain was doing it. This is on a reasonably new PC - works with 7 fine (which is why I've been using it to test)

Yes thats the version I downloaded. Running the installer on my W7 (32bit) comes up with the error that it is designed for use on Vista and the installer drops out.

I've tried it both joined/disjoined to the domain but get the same error. The logs show the error is related to the sidebar somehow: 2010-03-18 09:14:13, Error SYSPRP WindowsSideShow: Failed to get task folder (0x80070003) 2010-03-18 09:14:13, Error [0x0f0082] SYSPRP LaunchDll:Failure occurred while executing 'C:\Windows\System32\AuxiliaryDisplayClassInstaller.dll,WindowsSideShow_Sysprep_Generalize', returned error code 31 2010-03-18 09:14:13, Error [0x0f0070] SYSPRP RunExternalDlls:An error occurred while running registry sysprep DLLs, halting sysprep execution. dwRet = 31 2010-03-18 09:14:13, Error [0x0f00a8] SYSPRP WinMain:Hit failure while processing sysprep generalize internal providers; hr = 0x8007001f 2010-03-18 09:19:28, Info [0x0f004c] SYSPRP WaitThread:Exiting spawned waiting thread 2010-03-18 09:19:28, Info [0x0f0052] SYSPRP Shutting down SysPrep log Oddly the sidebar seems to work fine (not that I have any gadgets running anyway)

Well I tried again, new image from the DVD and got it all ready. Ran sysprep and lo and behold, a fatal error occured. What a crock! Started a complete fresh install - joined it to the domain,activated it and then tried to sysprep. Same error. I guess Windows 7 deployment will have to wait until BSF now.

I downloaded the 2.6 version and it doesn't install as it drops out with a message saying it is only suitable for vista (when tried on a W7 Pro 32bit) As for Photostory - why make this incompatible? It was a useful tool, especially in schools and they've started to use it a lot here.

I saw a few mentions about the wmp* processes but when I checked they weren't running. I was logged in as a domain admin at the time though.

Has anyone got Photostory 3 to work with Windows 7 (32)? I know theres loads of posts around the web about it working on 64bit but not 32, or if you use the 3.1 version it works (but thats a 60 day trial) but I want to use it on W7 Pro 32bit as its very popular here. Some posts even say that MS changed the compatibility lists and it now installs normally, but on my fully updated install it doesn't work. And the same applies for Movie Maker (the version that shipped with XP), why MS decided you have to use the frankly kak 'Live' version instead of the classic versions is beyond me - copying the Movie Maker folder from and existing XP install seems to be working, but its a bit of a botch to get it working.

I never did get to the bottom of why sysprep failed, but as it scuppered the whole installation it was better to start from scratch anyway. (It was currently activated at time of sysprep)

You still have to run the W7 version of sysprep (installed by default) to generalize it before you deploy it You're right though - one image is hardware independant, this image was a generic 'classroom' image

Well thats just great. Spent a week setting up a nice Windows 7 image to dump onto our WDS server so we can deploy it this summer and as soon as I run sysprep I get the 'a fatal error has occured sysprep cannot continue' No my nicely prepared 'donor' pc is useless, cannot login to the domain, cannot logon locally and I'm going to have to start all over. Argh!

Just noticed another weird thing in this room. When I run gpupdate /force to make it re-install all of the Group Policy assigned applications, it doesn't seem to work. All that happens is they reboot and nothing is reinstalled.The log only shows the single message 'Changes to software policy applied successfully' - but usually it would reinstall the 15 or so Apps that are applied. Looks like I've got 30 PCs having a bad day. Disjoining and rejoining a test PC made the software reinstall but the download problem still persists. Its seems to only affect MS Office files as PDFs/MP3s are working from this site in this room.

No - but their site works fine in every other ICT room, or anywhere apart from this room in fact!

Bit of an odd one this. In one of our IT suites, IE will not allow downloads of Word/Powerpoint/XL files etc from a specific website (ironically our LEA's VLE!) but will allow downloads from other websites (including our own) We get the File Download prompt (to Open or Save). if you select open the File Download box disappears almost immediately, then nothing else happens. If you select Save, you get the Save dialogue but after specifying where to save the file, the dialogue box disappears and nothing else happens! The file isn't saved. No errors in the logs, the site isn't assigned to any blacklists, and as this affects students,staff and admins (loose policies) it must be a machine problem. Oddly this suite has excactly same set of policies as the other suites, yet they're all working fine. Anyone got any ideas on this one?

On my current XP clients I run a script at startup to delete all users profiles (except Administrator and Local/Network service and a couple of other admin accounts) This works well, but as we are now looking into Windows 7 deployment soon I need to change this. However you can't delete profiles like this in 7 as it screws everthing up, and if you use group policy to delete accounts that are older than a specified date it deletes everything (including the local Administrator account!) Has anyone got a solution working for this in W7? I want to delete all profiles other than a specific handful at startup?

Thats odd, as that is what my original file looked like. Until I changed the locale to en-us it failed to work?