Topic: mandatory profiles in XP Pro and E-Smith 5.5

[David Trask]

Hi all,

I'm running a network with nearly 100 Windows XP Pro machines and an E-Smith 5.5 box as my primary domain controller and fileserver.  Last year when I was running Win 98 I was able to have all the machines look exactly alike no matter what...no profiles...all saved locally (I guess).  I'd like to do the same this year.  I want all the machines in my school to have essentially the same desktop no matter who is logged on.  How can I do mandatory profiles or have all users desktops look alike locally using XP pro....any ideas....PS this is my first time with XP Pro.  thanks!

[Georges]

Hi,

well, not complicated. do the same with XP pro than with 98. Define a profile as adminstrator, create a user with no right to change the desktop etc... and log on on the machine NOT on the domain... (otherwise, the profiles will be written on the server..)

Hope it helps..

Georges

[David Trask]

Thanks...but a little more if you will....I have the administrator set up as I like the desktop and all to look...how can I create a user with no right to change the desktop....and then how can I have my users long in to the machine and still be able to have their home directories mapped to a drive from the E-Smith box?  Is it possible?  I'm setting up one machine then I'll clone that machine so that part will be easy....can this be done?  I would like all my users to see the same desktop.

David

Georges wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> well, not complicated. do the same with XP pro than with 98.
> Define a profile as adminstrator, create a user with no right
> to change the desktop etc... and log on on the machine NOT on
> the domain... (otherwise, the profiles will be written on the
> server..)
>
> Hope it helps..
>
> Georges

[David Trask]

Thanks...but a little more if you will....I have the administrator set up as I like the desktop and all to look...how can I create a user with no right to change the desktop....and then how can I have my users long in to the machine and still be able to have their home directories mapped to a drive from the E-Smith box?  Is it possible?  I'm setting up one machine then I'll clone that machine so that part will be easy....can this be done?  I would like all my users to see the same desktop.

David

Georges wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> well, not complicated. do the same with XP pro than with 98.
> Define a profile as adminstrator, create a user with no right
> to change the desktop etc... and log on on the machine NOT on
> the domain... (otherwise, the profiles will be written on the
> server..)
>
> Hope it helps..
>
> Georges

[jasper]

Without active directory support you will have to treat the system as an NT4 Domain with mandatory profiles. Check out the Microsoft site, it's fully documented, look for NT mandatory profiles and policies

cheers

[Alan Stevens]

I just finished setting up an 18 PC lab with Windows XP Pro and SME 5.5.  Here's what I did:

-Configure a local user on a desktop machine.  Set home page, folder options, change theme to windows classic, turn off automatic updates, error reporting, and remote assistance etc.

-Turn on roaming profiles on the SME Server.

-Add the desktop machine to the domain.  Search the forum, or see Dan Brown's howto on familybrown.org for details.

-Log onto the domain as admin and browse to the "hidden" netlogon share on your server.

-Copy the local user profile you configured to the netlogon share, and rename the profile to "default user" (space and all).  Search for and delete all instances of desktop.ini in this profile (they don't remain hidden, and clutter things up).

-Add the other client machines to the domain.

-Now you can log onto the domain from any of the client machines as any SME user, and Samba will create a new roaming profile based on the default.

Note:  Your admin user will not have the default profile, but you can go to the
/home/e-smith/samba/profiles directory, and rm -rf admin.  Next time you login as admin a new profile will be created based on your default.  If you have already created profiles with defaults you don't like, you can remove and recreate them too, but you will lose any changes you've made to the profile.

Good luck,

Alan--

[Alan Stevens]

Whoops!  The samba howto is located on Darrell May's site here:

http://www.myezserver.com/downloads/mitel/howto/samba-howto.html

The part you will need to connect XP pro to a domain is found at the end of the document.

You should still read the howtos on Dan Brown's site.  He has some good stuff there.

Alan--

[Nathaniel Brown]

First of all check out what Alan Stevens said further down.

From what I can tell you want a manditory account.

Basically you set up a perfect account then you jusst rename the NTUSER.DAT to NTUSER.MAT and thats more or less it

Now as for clonning a machine I've looked into that as well but thanks to windows product activation clonning (dirrect imaging) is impossible. You can do it but the OS won't boot up at all.

You can either do a remote unattended install or install it on each machine. The only way to do a remote unatended install is through windows 2000 Pro (that I know of) so it looks like you have to install it on each machine (if it's no already) fortunately because you have a PDC and DHCP (I hope) all you have to do is give each machine a name.

When I was in school I think our computer teacher did it in the first class (as a learning experiance ... windows 95 back then I think)

If you have any other questions just ask. (btw once you install it you can make an image BUT you have to make an image for each machine and then make sure each machine gets back the same image)

Have fun.

[BillN]

David,

This may not help much, but, check out http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q302577&

I don't know much about sysprep, but, it seems like it is used for easy rollout of multiple PCs from an image.

Good luck!

Bill

[Michael Jung]

Nathaniel Brown wrote:
> Now as for clonning a machine I've looked into that as well
> but thanks to windows product activation clonning (dirrect
> imaging) is impossible. You can do it but the OS won't boot
> up at all.
>
I'm sucessfully cloning systems. But it may work because I'm using a key for a University Campus license.
I did install one system and after cloning to 7 other I had only to rename the system and re-enter each to the E-Smith (PDC) Domain for login and roaming profiles.

Michael Jung