Group Policy Newbie 2

[SteveAudus]

Just started using GP to lock up and configure our xp users.

I have disabled loads of stuff that pupils mess with,
like the desktop, control panel, start menus and stuff like that. This is just like I did using Poledit for our NT machines.

Now with Poledit I was able to download or create adm files
to alter reg edit things, such as Office or I.E. setting for a group of users.

Is it possble to do the same Group Policy Editor in Windows 2000?

Some pretty major things, I haven't been able to find in GP user configuration, is:
1. Removing Common (or All users) items from the startmenu.

2. Redirection of My Documents so it points at the drive map of the user's home folder.

3. Screensaver & Wallpaper configuration from GP

4. & very important setting Proxy setting for I.E 6

These are just some things I used to set in Poledit,
how do I set them and more in GP.

Thank You for any suggestions.

Steve Audus
Chaucer School
Sheffield, UK

http://www.chaucer.sheffield.sch.uk

http://www.educationinternet.co.uk

 

[InvalidResponse]

1. User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Start Menu & Taskbar, Remove Common Program Groups from Start Menu.

2. If you are using AD, you can look in the Profile tab of the propeties of a user, then map a users space under Home Folder. This is not exactly what you wanted but may be of some use.

3. You can force users to use a certain wallpaper using: User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Desktop, Active Desktop Wallpaper. (But there are other settings in here to play about with)

4.I'm not sure if this is what you want but try Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Internet Explorer, Make Proxy Settings per...


I hope some of this helps!!

 

[SteveAudus]

Cheers: InvalidResponse

1. User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Start Menu & Taskbar, Remove Common Program Groups from Start Menu.

>Spot on

2. If you are using AD, you can look in the Profile tab of the propeties of a user, then map a users space under Home Folder. This is not exactly what you wanted but may be of some use.

> it maps z: drive succesfully to their home drive,
but MY Documents of the user looks at the profiles
local address?

3. You can force users to use a certain wallpaper using: User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Desktop, Active Desktop Wallpaper. (But there are other settings in here to play about with)

> Spot on

4.I'm not sure if this is what you want but try Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Internet Explorer, Make Proxy Settings per...

> This didn't work, but I found the setting under
User Configuration, Windows Settings, IE Maintaince, Connection, Proxy Settings

Any ideas on how to stop that bloody XP tour from popping up?

Thanks for your help
Steve

http://www.chaucer.sheffield.sch.uk

http://www.educationinternet.co.uk

 

[Aslamvs]

XP displays the Windows Tour balloon prompt the first 3 times you logon to XP. If you want to suppress the XP Tour, use the following XP registry edit
:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Tour
Name: RunCount
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0


Here is some info

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307729

hth
Setting RunCount = 0 will disable the balloon prompt for all user. Aslam

 

[Davetoo]

For #2, mapping the My Documents is accomplished in Group Policy: Windows Settings\Folder Redirection\My Documents. You'll see that you can also redirect their App data, Desktop and the Start Menu to a server store as well.

Dave

 

[MFuhge]

"1. User Configuration, Administrative "...

just one question... where? ^^

 

[Davetoo]

All this is done on an OU's Group Policy tab, in Active Directory, right click and select Properties on the OU you wish to apply the policy for.

 

[SteveAudus]

Aslamvs Cheers, works great

lander215

tried this but how do I type in the address;
our user's home directories are hiden shares,
eg. \\Server\j smith$

so I have tried

\\Server\%username%$

but that didn't work

Any suggestions?

Steve Audus

http://www.chaucer.sheffield.sch.uk

http://www.educationinternet.co.uk

 

[Davetoo]

Well, if you don't have too many users, enter them in directly.

My question, though, is why are you hiding the users shares? I put all my users in a \\server\users\%username% folder. When you put the information into their profile, W2K will lock down their folders completely security wise, you don't have to fiddle with them. If you want to hide the share, try \\server\users$\%username%.

Nearly all of my other shares I hide, just to prevent the occasional in-house Snoopy.

Dave

 

[SteveAudus]

lander215

Thank you for your reply,

we have nearly 2000 users, so entering them directly
is not an option.

Our shares are hidden so if I click onto Server I don't see all the users shares,

I can't easily change them, because there is 2000.

Any other suggestions?

Steve

http://www.chaucer.sheffield.sch.uk

http://www.educationinternet.co.uk

 

[Davetoo]

Oh boy, 2000? Yeah, that would take a while, and probably not worth the effort.

Let me fire up my test domain and see what I can figure out.

Dave

 

[Davetoo]

Steve,

Ok, I created a new user, gave them a home folder that was redirected to \\server\users\%username%$ (i.e. \\server\users\user1$) which was a hidden folder. I then modified the Group Policy per my instructions above, and entered in \\server\users\%username%$, and it worked just fine.

Now, when I originally tried to create a profile for the user using only \\server\%username%$, I got an error that the folder didn't exist...thinking out loud now, it wasn't a share, so of course it didn't exist. How exactly did you setup your users home folders in their profile to point to the root directory? \\server\c$\user$?

Dave