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Thanks Arthur. I had not thought of having a shortcut to the folder, that would make it much easier and solves the main problem around hidden files. What would you recommend instead of NSIS? I only choose it because of past experience needing to repack VLC installer for school network and VLC uses it.

Good Day, I have recently migrated an Access 97 based program to Access 2016. The migration has gone OK, but I am re-creating the installer and I am unsure of location to place files. The program is for managing school sports carnivals. It was previously a commercial package, but the developer consented to it being released as open source if I was willing to upgrade it to work with modern system. https://github.com/ruddj/SportsAdmin The previous installer was designed for Windows 98 and installed everything to Program Files. This will not work in Windows 10 as the Access DB needs to be written to by users. It is a mostly split database, with completely separate user files for each carnival but some config settings are still stored in application DB. I am planning to have two default locations it could install to, for either a system-wide install or a current non-admin user install. The location is just a default and the user installing would be able to modify. The files I need to install are: Access DB file (needs to be writable) Icon CHM Help File Word Documentation HTML & CSS Template files in a subdirectory Access looks in the same directory as DB file for the icon and help file. Any suggestions on where I should install these? The folder the database is installed to also needs to be writable as Access creates the laccdb locking file. Preferably the folder should also be visible so users can see the Templates easily for editing (e.g. without having to show hidden folders) Is there any system wide location that would meet these? Should I try to separate the files more? I have been considering ProgramData but that folder is hidden so users would be unable to easily see templates, similar AppData\Local for a user. I could install the system wide version to a folder in Program Files and modify security rights on the folder, but this introduces security holes, especially for schools that use AppLocker or other restrictions. I was also thinking about installing to “Public Documents” or “My Documents”, but usually you don’t want apps to be installed in Documents folder, especially if using Roaming Profiles. I started working on an installer, but I need to plan out where it should place the files https://github.com/ruddj/SportsAdmin/blob/master/Source/installs/Setup.nsi Thanks for any ideas or suggestions.

We had a similar problem when Super Scopes were configured in AD DHCP server.

Are you redirecting the Common Users Desktop folder or the Users own Desktop folder? You can only add shortcuts to a folder where the PC or User has permission, so if either of these folders are local you can add shortcuts to them. You can also add shortcuts to a personal folder that is on the network e.g. we redirect staff desktops to a sub-folder on their network home drive. They have full rights to this folder so shortcuts can be created, but you need to tick "Run in logged-on user's security context (user policy option)" to ensure it is created using their credentials.

Is the shared desktop local or on the network? If it is on the network, the local computer has no rights to create a shortcut there. Just create is manually and it will be available for all users.

I completed the exams but as they were beta I don't know if I passed or not yet. 415 & 416 had a lot more App-V Qs than I had been expecting and I am not too confident of those.

I'm doing all 4 this weekend. I have been trying to find some study material. Mainly be going through virtual labs on Microsoft's Premier Technical Learning Event | TechEd North America (free signup)

We have had occasional problems with the policy xml file getting corrupt on local computer (or appears as 0kb file). The trick to fix was to delete the group policy history directory (hidden directory) and then run gpupdate /force XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Microsoft\Group Policy\History Win 7: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Group Policy\History

Just a quick thought, does your HDD already have the system partition? Before it starts encrypting it needs to create a system boot partition by resizing your main partition. If you have some sort of boot sector protection enabled in BIOS it may prevent this from working.

Where are you creating the shortcut? If you are assigning the policy to the computer you need to create the shortcut in the Computer Configuration rather than User Config and you need to use %CommonProgramsDir% and %CommonDesktopDir% rather than user specific %ProgramsDir%. We use this to deploy our common shortcuts and only use the user specific paths for group specific shortcuts with Item Level Targeting. There is no need to use loop back processing.

This is an entirely different issue that there are multiple threads about. It does not rename the folders, just changes how it displays them. Their are a few different ways to solve it. http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/47835-windows-7-gotchas-tips-fyi.html#post438279 http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows/47993-home-folder-shows-documents-instead-folder-name.html http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/62085-windows-7-renamed-our-user-network-folders-my-documents.html

At a guess you will need to deploy it out as a GPP registry setting rather than using Folder Options. Use something like sysinternals Process Monitor to identify registry setting it changes and then deploy that out.

If you want a complete resource there is a great book by Jeremy http://www.amazon.com/Group-Policy-Fundamentals-Security-Managed/dp/0470581859/ I have the previous edition of the book (was 2 books back then) and it has some great tips and guide to get started with GPOs right through to advanced settings. There are also lots of online blogs that give ideas and feedback on using GPOs. Biggest change since 2003 is the introduction of Group Policy Preferences. These allow you to set defaults for things, as well as easily manage drive mappings, adding registry entries, shortcuts, printers, files, etc. Really worth reading about and experimenting. Their true power lies in Item Level Targeting, you can create fairly advanced rules that determine if an item should be deployed or not. e.g. Only deploy a printer and set it as default if the user logons on to a WS in a certain OU.

From what I have seen this is what most business do that have satellite/branch offices. The aim is to provide a local server for authentication, DNS and DHCP, rather than always travelling over VPN. By having separate sites your can control how they sync. Not sure, this may help: Deploying Active Directory for Branch Office Environments Some other good resources Adding Domain Controllers in Remote Sites Look around, there are lots of good resources, just look up either branch office or remote sites.

How are the 2 sites connected? Are they on different IP subnets? Do you have routing configured between them? Are there firewalls between the sites? I have never tried this so if anyone can confirm / refute the following please do so. The easiest option if possible is to start with Server B at Site A, add it to domain and start replication. This ensure it is up to date and doesn't need to sync over the WAN. Then use AD Sites and Services to Create the new site and assign Server B to the new site. (Sites are usually defined using IP subnets). Move Server B to Site B, change it's settings (IP, Gateway, etc) and check if it can still sync. If it can't sync you start the long path of trying to determine what is blocking it. Routing, firewalls, etc all come into this. If you are doing this with servers already in position at the 2 sites, the main thing is to ensure DNS is set up between them. After you create the first AD server (A), have your extra DC (B) point to it for DNS. This ensures it knows where to contact the server for adding the domain. You will still need to ensure they can communicate though routing/firewall for actual transfer /sync of AD data. Good Luck.

I haven't tried it but the way I would do it is to store the value in either a custom AD Attribute or an unused standard attribute. Then use either VBScript or Powershell to lookup the attribute in AD for the current user and set that as an environmental value. This could then be run as a logon script for your users.

I use GPP as I can set the default printer for different labs. I assign the printer using a user GPP but then use the Item Level Targeting with the workstations OU to assign default based on WS location. Allows very detailed filtering and seems to work well.

Assuming the folders are named for the students login there are script around that can go through each directory and restrict it to the user with a matching name. If you can't find any I have one around somewhere from our migration.

Have you checked how many free licenses you have? Are you using user or device licensing?

Did you try to ping the servers DNS name? Is your Win XP client static IP or DHCP? If static does it have the DNS server set to server? If DHCP have you set DHCP server to distribute DNS server (006) and Connection DNS (015)?

Open the print management console (just search print in start menu) then click Drivers, right click driver you want to isolate, and choose either Isolated or Shared. Both will separate from Spooler, Shared is a common process area for all drivers, while Isolated is on its own. Shared: Run the driver in a process that is shared with other printer drivers but is separate from the spooler process. Isolated: Run the driver in a process that is separate from the spooler process and is not shared with other printer drivers. None: Run the driver in the spooler process. Some sites: Printer Driver Isolation in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 | sepago Printer Driver Isolation

Just a suggestion to give the free Password Control utility a go. You can run it straight from shared drive if you want and it is very easy for staff to use.

When you delegated access to the OU you choose which rights to grant. If you use the Delegate Control wizard it has a checkbox for what to grant, if you only gave "Reset user password and force password change at next logon" that is all they can do. I would also recommend only assigning this to groups rather than users (add user to group) otherwise if that user ever leaves you end up with unresolvable SIDs through your AD.

You can also try enabling Drier Isolation so if the driver does crash it doesn't take the spooler with it. You can configure the HP drivers on RDS server to be isolated.