Showing Desktop icons for all users

[Zracer03]

I recently started installing our Terminal Servers on Windows 2003 servers. We currently have GPO's that work with our TS's on Win 2000. I am trying to duplicate these new ones as close as possible but ran into a problem. Like XP, Windows 2003 by default doesnt show any desktop items (My Documents, Network Neighborhood, IE). You have to go into the display and enable them. Is there a way through GPO or anything else, to automatically show those icons for everyone? We don't allow users to go into the display, and even so, we wouldnt be able to show all users how to do that, we are trying to make this rather seemless. Ive looked up every GPO I can think of, and cant find one to use, and there is no where locally on the server I can find either. Any ideas? thanks

 

[Roadki11]

In the GPO for the users go into User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu and Taskbar, about the 11th policy from the bottom is Force Classic Start Menu. I think that is the one you want, Enable it.

RoadKi11

 

[Zracer03]

Nope i've tried that. All it does is get rid of all the XP type enhancements on the start menu, but does nothing for the icons. I can't believe people havent come across this before. It seems so simple, yet I can't find an answer for it anywhere. I even recreated the default profile on the 2003 boxes with the icons, and it works great, for newly created users, but the other 600 users that have accounts and roaming profiles, the icons go away when they log in.

 

[Roadki11]

I would have to say you are enabling Force Classic Start Menu in the wrong GP or its being over ruled by a different GP. Here is the definition of the policy. works fine for me. run gpresult to see if the GP is being applied.

Force Classic Start Menu
This setting effects the presentation of the Start menu.

The classic Start menu in Windows 2000 Professional allows users to begin common tasks, while the new Start menu consolidates common items onto one menu. When the classic Start menu is used, the following icons are placed on the desktop: My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, My Computer, and My Network Places. The new Start menu starts them directly.

If you enable this setting, the Start menu displays the classic Start menu in the Windows 2000 style and displays the standard desktop icons.

If you disable this setting, the Start menu only displays in the new style, meaning the desktop icons are now on the Start page.

If you do not configure this setting, the default is the new style, and the user can change the view.

Hope this helps,

Roadki11