mattpant

Hi All, For some time now we have had issues with printers not always deploying on first logon - we use to have a VBS script that wouldn't always install the printers first time - but if you logged off and back in again they would be installed. I tried moving away from the old vbs script and to use Group Policy Preferences - but I'm finding that we have mixed results using that too... We have a Server 2012 R2 setup as a Print Server - Printers are shared on the server I have a Printer GPO setup for each room OU which has Group Policy Loopback Processing set from the User to the Computers in that OU - the GPP is set to "Create" the connection to the shared printer - sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. I was hoping that using GPP would resolve the issues we had using VBS scripts. Anybody have any reasons why it's not always working for us? Thanks Matt

Can you outline please the process you've used to achieve such fast logon times - what steps have you taken to setup your mandatory profiles to get such fast logon times? What O/S are you using?

Yes - sorry - I switched it on temporarily to see what it was actually doing - If it's not enabled, you just get the blue screen with Preparing Desktop for the same amount of time - but what we are trying to find out is why it's doing it in the first place and how we can reduce whatever it is doing preparing apps within the mandatory profile to speed things up!

Our logon times since moving to Windows 8.1 are horrendous - the longest part being at the "Preparing your desktop" section - we use mandatory profiles - what can I do to trim the profile down / speed the logons up - When I look at what's running it tends to be Active Setups running - I switched on the verbose/highly detailed messages to see what was happening and you get what looks like the Windows 8 - Setting up your Apps / First Time logon screen each time. Thanks Matt

Has anybody managed to fix this? I'm having very similar issues with Windows 8.1 clients mapping printers using a VBS logon script and a Windows Server 2012R2 Print Server. I sometimes get No Printers Installed - Log out, then straight back in and they appear correctly with no problems! Sometimes if there's two or more printer to be mapped, I only get 1 printer installed The same script on Windows XP machines works just fine with no issues. There's no real pattern to try and pin point the issue - I've amended the GPO for the Point and Print settings so it doesn't pop up about Trust Printers etc I'm also aware of the delay built into Windows 8.1 with Startup Scripts and have modified the GPO setting for that so there is no delay in running the script HELP!!! I have tried installing the printers with GPP - which does map the printer but causes other issues by setting up a connection directly to the printer and bypassing the print server and therefore bypassing PaperCut - users not getting charged for copies - and not being able to set the default printer - Thanks Matt

Hi All, This has been bugging me for some time now and I can't see a reason why it doesn't work properly first time... We have a script created using the WiseSoft ScriptBuilder that maps printers based upon the Computer Name or User Group - this script is a VBS file - and is set to run at user logon - the script works without any problems on Windows XP Devices, but since moving over to Windows 8 - it's very hit and miss that it works on the first logon - if you log in, and don't see the printers then log out and back in once again they always appear as they should on the 2nd Logon, but not very often on the first logon. I am aware of the 5 minute delay in processing Logon Scripts under Windows 8.1, but as far as I'm aware, I have made the necessary changes within Group Policy to avoid this delay. I am also aware of using Group Policy Preferences to assign the printers to computers - but this is based upon User Settings and not computer settings, I've used Loop Back Policy Processing to achieve what we want but I've noticed that it seems to map the printer directly to it rather then via the actual print server. For example - when using the script the Printer get's mapped as "Room 3 Laser Printer on SERVER-01" but using GPP it's mapped as just "Room 3 Laser Printer" Anything else I can try to make sure the script runs everytime without fail!?! Thanks Matt

I'd be interested to see what others are doing - I'm planning on starting from scratch with Windows 8.1 machines + Server 2012 R2 If anybody is willing to share there GPO Reports Exports for Staff/Students/Computers etc it be very much appreciated! Thanks

I'm in!! Thanks - Merry Christmas ;-)

Yeah, I've used that GPO to Hide the animation - but just looking at a way to try and stop whatever apps' it's trying to install to speed up user logons when using the mandatory profile!

Thanks - the last room that I imaged - I did use the PowerShell commands to remove all the Metro Style Apps from the system before imaging the computer - but the logon still pops up with the screen as mentioned above - It is quicker tho - but it's still trying to install something! Thanks Matt

Hi All, I've setup new Mandatory profiles to use with our students from Windows 8.1 machines using the Microsoft Method of running the copyprofile command in Unattend.xml/Sysprep - The profile is working and loading up, however - every time a user goes to logon to the computer using the profile the system runs the first time logon black screen with the following :- Hi... We're setting things up for you... You can get new apps from the store... Installing your apps... Let's Start! Then you get the Desktop This is obviously adding a delay to the time it takes a user to load up the desktop. I don't know what apps it's installing - but how can we stop this with the Mandatory profile to speed things up?!?!? I'm aware of the GPO Setting to hide this screen from showing, but that's all it does do - it hides it, but still runs and adds the delay to logon and you just see the "Preparing Desktop" message instead. Thanks Matt

The profile has been created twice - 1 using the copy and paste and editing the registry - and the 2nd time using the sysprep and copy profile switch / both have led to the same problem with office programs

Hi Arthur, That's what I'm saying - using a Windows XP based profile on the Windows 8 machines which you would expect problems with actually has no issues with any Office 2013 program BUT creating a brand new Mandatory profile specifically for the a Windows 8 clients DOES have the issue with Office 2013 program's! Weird ?!? Thanks Matt

Hi - I've got the exact same issue - did you ever find a fix? It only seems to be a certain mandatory profile that has this issue, there's others users here with issue where I've posted more details on my issue:- http://www.edugeek.net/forums/office-software/134677-ms-office-2013-power-point.html#post1230774 Matt

I too am getting this same issue with Windows 8.1 Update 1 clients and Office 2013 installs - but only with using a new Mandatory profile that I've setup for users using Windows 8 - if I change the profile back to our old one they used with Windows XP machines and the user logs on the issue does not happen in Office / PowerPoint - so it appears to be something within the profile or the ntuser.dat/man file that's causing the problem? The issue didn't seem to be there with the account I used when creating the mandatory profile. HELP!! It's driving is bonkers! I really need to switch the users profiles over to the new one I've setup as the login times on the old one take forever!! Thanks Matt

We used SquirrelMail previously, where we just deleted the users from the system, each year group had it's own group, so we promoted Y13 to "Leavers", Y12 - 13, Y11 - 12 etc etc Office 365 doesn't have this OU type structure, all the users just appear under users! - there were no licenses to issue/remove, no links to Active Directory, no Powershell commands to run. Thanks Matt

Hi All, This will be our first school year using Office 365 - does anybody have any end of school year guides or procedures that they perform on there Office 365 setup that they wouldn't mind sharing with us? Best Practice etc etc for leavers - do you have to remove the licenses from leavers, or once deleted will this free the license up again, or if you don't will you loose it? We are using DirSync with Password - which setups the users nicely in Office 365 - does anybody have any scripts that would fully automate this for us, by adding the relevant licenses to new users - set location as UK, and give the students an OWA Mailbox Policy? Many Thanks Matt

Hi Noel, I believe that there is a folder called WinX within the Local AppData folder of the users profile - it looks like your able to remove shortcuts from there. This folder doesn't appear to "Roam" with the profile, so if you've discovered that right clicking the start button on some machines the menu appears, and does nothing on others, then that's probably why! I'm kind of in the same situation as you at the moment deploying 8.1 around the school - I'd appreciate it if you were able to share with me your GPO's you've put together for the Win 8.1 machines - Group Policy Management, Select GPO, Select Settings Tab, Right Click and either save as HTML or Print to a PDF file if your able to? Many Thanks Matt

Update 2 is due to be released next week. You may want to wait for that?..... Doesn't look like Update 2 is happening now, so don't feel too bad about it! http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2014/08/05/august-updates-for-windows-8-1-and-windows-server-2012-r2/

Thanks Arthur, God Dam it - Update 2 around the corner - ahh well I can always push it out afterwards but would have been nice to do it all in one hit... Sorry, I did rename the profile to ntuser.man from .dat, my error in original posting, I'll look into the .V4 profile then, I let 8.1 create the new profile on the server which resulted in it creating the .V2 folder KMS is a possibility so I'll look into that too, Many thanks! Matt

I've worked out the Power Settings using Group Policy Preferences, which was pretty easy, but new to me as we're upgrading from Server 2003 / Windows XP to Server 2012R2 / Win 8.1 so these options were not previously available to us!

Hi Guys, I'm currently in the process off upgrading our machines to Windows 8.1 (With Update 1) Enterprise Edition, however I've got a couple of questions that I can't see to find answers for:- 1 - How to I make changes to the power settings on the new Ctrl + Alt + Del Lock screen before a users goes to login, I would prefer that this screen is ALWAYS on, but I can't seem to find where I need to make changes for it. I know under XP, there was a .Default profile where you could edit power settings for the login screen, I can see that Windows 8 still has the .default reg key, but can't find anything related to power. 2 - How can I make a new Mandatory Profile for Windows 8 WORK for when users logon pointing to that Mandatory profile - I have all Staff and Students pointing to a Mandatory profile on the server, I've logon a an admin pointing to the Mandatory profile, so it creates a new .V2 version of the profile, I've modified permissions on the server for Staff / Students - Read Only - and changed it to ntuser.dat, but I'm getting errors when anybody try's to logon using that profile. 3 - Is there a script / PowerShell script that I can use so that after deploying the Windows 8 image (I'm using FOG) it will run a script that will automatically populate the Windows (and Office 2013) MAK key and activate it? I'm sure there was one more thing but can't remember right now, but the above few are the one's that are really bugging me at the mo! Thanks Matt

+1 for me too... I'm in the process of installing 8.1 with Update 1 around the school so any GPO starters for staff / students would be a great help! Thanks Matt

I've just tested with 2 users I was aware of not working and they both seem to be logging in OK now! Fingers crossed it stays this way - still not sure the real reason why only a couple of users (out of about 1000) would not log in!

I've also logged a call earlier with Microsoft, who were very quick to respond, emailing and phoning me.... they also said that it was an issue they are aware of effecting some users and working on a fix, let's hope they can sort it out fairly quickly!