Automatic for the people 2

[Zelandakh]

Stealing an REM album name for a question - terrible.<br>
<br>
I have loads of Windows 95 clients going to my NT Servers. I want to allow them to &quot;hotdesk&quot; so I want logon scripts to set everything for the user. Can anyone help on the following:<br>
<br>
1. Outlook profile to exchange server. There used to be a newprof.exe on Exchange that set your profile for Exchange client in Win95. Does anyone use it with Outlook97?<br>
2. Word97. Is there a way to set the default directory for Word using a command line parameter?<br>
3. Excel97. As Word97.

 

[MasterRacker]

I use a program called WISE ( <A HREF="

http://www.glbs.com"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.glbs.com</A>)

to generate setup scripts. You could also use VB or something else as well. I would write a little program that reads the logged on user sets the two registry settings for the default paths. In our case the paths are &quot;\\&lt;servname&gt;\Home\&lt;username&gt;\Document&quot; Anything that can create an executable that can make registry settings will do the job.<br>
<br>
Word:<br>
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Word\Options<br>
DOC-PATH = &quot;--------&quot;<br>
<br>
Excel<br>
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Excel\Microsoft Excel<br>
DefaultPath = &quot;---------&quot;<br>
<br>
Call the executable from the script. <br>
<br>
The new profile generator is called &quot;pgen.exe&quot;. We use it here to create a new profile based on the currently logged on user, but I didn't set it up and don't know how.<br>
<br>
There's probably a better way than to create a special executable, but I can't think of one at the moment. <p> Jeff<br><a href=mailto: masterracker@hotmail.com> masterracker@hotmail.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[Zelandakh]

Thanks Jeff.<br>
<br>
Anyone know a way to do it using ordinary command lines (i.e. for free)?

 

[MasterRacker]

I thought I read about a way to get into the registry through a command script on <A HREF="

http://www.jsiinc.com"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.jsiinc.com</A>

but I looked around for a while before I originally replied and couldn't find it. <br>
<br>
Defniitely one of the problems of the business we're in is remembering the niggling little details or where you found a tidbit..... If I do find it again I'll post it. <p> Jeff<br><a href=mailto: masterracker@hotmail.com> masterracker@hotmail.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[MasterRacker]

Back again. There is a Server Resource Kit utility called Reg.exe. Something like the following ought to work:<br>
<br>
reg update HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Word\Options\DOC-PATH=\\&lt;servname&gt;\HOME\&lt;username&gt;<br>
<br>
Do you have user profiles enabled so this only has to be done once pernew user per machine, or do you have profiles disabled completely so everything has to be done every time a user logs in? The reason I ask is because 1.) pgen is slow and 2) I'm not sure if a user profile is generated before or after the logon script has completed. You may run into a few funky problems.<br>
<br>
<p> Jeff<br><a href=mailto: masterracker@hotmail.com> masterracker@hotmail.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[Zelandakh]

I have profiles disabled completely. Some of the older installs of 95 don't allow profile to go to the network (or so I believe). No one sticks stuff on the hard disk or the desktop so its all reasonably straight forward what I want to do:<br>
<br>
Joe Bloggs works in department spam along with another 10 people. Each of them run logon script spam.bat on their 95 machines every time they log on. Their computers have a printer set up to print to LPT1.<br>
<br>
Logon script currently looks like:<br>
<br>
net use k: /home (i.e. specified by User Manager)<br>
net use j: \\servername\spam<br>
net use lpt1 \\servername\spamprinter<br>
<br>
I have the problem that their Word and Excel directories won't change and neither will the outlook profile. I'm going to look into pgen, particularly with respect to its speed. I'm going to add something like:<br>
<br>
set wordpath=\\servername\spam\%username%<br>
reg update HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Word\Options\DOC-PATH=%wordpath%<br>
and a similar thing for Excel.<br>
<br>
Would profiles help me and work across all versions of 95?<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>

 

[MasterRacker]

Our remaining Win95 machines are running 95a and using roaming profiles. I didn't set them up but they do work. I remember posting something I found in TechNet a while back about setting them up. If I get a chance I'll see if I can find it again.<br>
<br>
Even if you don't have roaming profiles and jut local profiles, you can then, at least, only set the doc folders and create the Outlook profile once per user per machine. <p> Jeff<br><a href=mailto: masterracker@hotmail.com> masterracker@hotmail.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[Zelandakh]

Where is pgen.exe ? I can't find it on the Exchange server, nor can I find the old newprof.exe. Is it only loaded with a resource kit or similar or is it only on the installer CDs and is not part of a standard install?

 

[MasterRacker]

I think I'm Guilty of being an IDIOT. (Not the first time.) I can't get hold of anyone at our parent co. but it looks like I made a faulty assumption. I think pgen was developed there and actually calls newprof. Newprof DOES still exist and is present on the MS Office CD. Mine has two versions in d:\OFFICE\WMS\WIN95 and d:\OFFICE\WMS\WINNT. Hope this gets you on the right path.<br>
<br>
(I HATE it when I have to go to the corner and wear my stupid cap. :-( ) <p> Jeff<br><a href=mailto: masterracker@hotmail.com> masterracker@hotmail.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[robherc]

Zel-<br>
<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Can't you just create subdirs of their individual home directories (K:\ in your example) with their Word & Excell data in them....then just set it to &quot;K:\progs\word\&quot; instead of having to have it be soo dynamically allocated? <p>-Robherc<br><a href=mailto:robherc@netzero.net>robherc@netzero.net</a><br><a href= > </a><br>*nix installation & program collector/reseller. Contact me if you think you've got one that I don't

 

[Zelandakh]

Users hot desk quite regularly. Their home directories are less of an issue, but their Word and Excel documents folders need setting to \\servername\department\username otherwise they complain. Lots.<br>
<br>
I'm still looking into newprof. I have found the .exe file, but I can't find the default.prf or similar file to base the template on. Anyone?