Non-standard workstations

[MarcusWendel]

We're in the process of moving to AD and the move of the regular users are going according to plan, however I'm not sure how to handle the non-standard computers:
We have a number of computers with extra equipment (scanners, DVD-buners etc) that everyone on the company can use, there is no login to use the computer however they need to be able to login to access their department folders on the file server. In the Netware days there was an automatic login to the computer and they the users started the NW login program when they needed access to their files on the server.
There is the same problem with the computers available in the conference rooms and these as also used by external people with no AD login.

How can we achive something similar in an AD-network?

Thanks.

/Marcus

 

[itsp1965]

You can add the machines to the domain and have your office users logon to them when required. As for guest users you can always create a special domain account for them that they can use
Although automatic logons are easy to implement it's not exactly the most secure method.

 

[MarcusWendel]

Thanks itsp1965. We have the users My Documents and Desktops redirected to a server and we don't want those to be downloaded onto these machines when the users login, can that be avoided while still implementing the other policies?

/Marcus

 

[Stevehewitt]

Yep, put a policy on just those machines that doesn't redirect the My Docs.




Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[markdmac]

Yep, put a policy on just those machines that doesn't redirect the My Docs.

Folder redirection is a user policy, not a machine policy so the above will probably not help. What you need to do is be able to override the user settings for that specific machine.

Create an OU for these "non-standard" machines and move the computer accounts to that OU. Next create a group policy that sets up whatever you need done. Select to disable policy inherritance to block any GPOs from above. Next turn on Loopback processing so the GPO for this OU will take effect for the users rather than their normal policy.

To use the Loopback processing policy

1. In the Group Policy snap-in, under the Computer Configuration node, click Administrative Templates, click System, and then click Group Policy.

2. In the details pane, double-click the User Group Policy loopback processing mode policy.


3. Click Enabled in the User Group Policy loopback processing mode dialog box, select Replace in the Mode drop-down box, and then click OK to exit the property page.



I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

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