A way to add an icon/shortcut to the all users?

[Paul Boy]

I work in an large organisation that's split into 4 groups (Areas) I'm looking to submit a staff suggestion that relates to certain/different group(s) of users to have default shortcuts/icons on each users login that can not be deleted.

Is this possible through Group Policies and Active Directory?

thanks
Paul

[badass]

I work in an large organisation that's split into 4 groups (Areas) I'm looking to submit a staff suggestion that relates to certain/different group(s) of users to have default shortcuts/icons on each users login that can not be deleted.

Is this possible through Group Policies and Active Directory?

thanks
Paul

I achieve this using a login script I wrote. It's a bit of a large one though and I've replaced it with a vbscript one that doesn't do this any more as I didn't get round to implementing that.

[petrefax]

I achieve this using a login script I wrote. It's a bit of a large one though and I've replaced it with a vbscript one that doesn't do this any more as I didn't get round to implementing that.

don't suppose you've got that lying around that i could blatantly plagarize...sounds exactly like something i am seriously lacking the time & motivation to write

[Jay]

I use this to create outlook icons on all users desktops

'##############################################################
'# CREATESHORTCUT.VBS
'# CREATES A SHORTCUT ON THE USERS DESKTOP TO A SPECIFIED FILE
'# 
'# USES: WINDOWS SCRIPT HOST
'# LANGUAGE: VISUAL BASIC SCRIPTING EDITION
'##############################################################

'FORCE EXPLICIT VARIABLE DECLARATION
option explicit

'STEP OVER ERRORS FOR CUSTOM ERROR REPORTING
on error resume next

'DECLARE VARIABLES
dim shell, desktopPath, link, sys32Path

'INSTANTIATE THE WINDOWS SCRIPT HOST SHELL OBJECT
Set shell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.shell")

'SET THE PATH TO THE WINDOWS DESKTOP FOLDER & MY DOCUMENTS FOLDER
desktopPath = shell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
sys32Path = "%SystemRoot%\system32"


'CREATE A SHORTCUT ON THE USER'S DESKTOP
Set link = shell.CreateShortcut(desktopPath & "\Outlook.lnk")

'SET THE PROPERTIES FOR THE SHORTCUT
link.Description = "My Shortcut"
link.TargetPath = "outlook.exe"
link.WindowStyle = 3
link.WorkingDirectory = desktopPath
link.Save

'CLEANUP OBJECTS
set shell = nothing

'LET THE USER KNOW IF THERE WAS AN ERROR AND WHAT IT WAS
'OTHERWISE CONFIRM SHORCUT CREATION
if err.number <> 0 then
	msgbox "There was an error creating your shortcut." & vbCrLf & err.description & vbCrLf & err.source, vbOKOnly-vbExclamation, "Shortcut Builder"
else
	msgBox "Your new shortcut has been created!" & vbCrLf & "Please check your Windows Desktop.", vbOKOnly-vbInformation, "Shortcut Builder"
end if

[petrefax]

cheers buddy, just emailed that to myself at work , will have a good rummage through that next week

[Jay]

I did write most of it (and took other bits from the web ) if you need a hand let me know.

[Paul Adams]

If it's for every user and you want to prevent deletion of the shortcuts, you could add the shortcuts on the "All Users" or "Public" desktop (depending on the Windows version), then just ensure non-Administrators do not have create or delete permissions to that path.

IIRC you can use the following path regardless of the version of Windows to show the common desktop:
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Desktop

On XP this would map to "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop" by default, and on Windows 7 it would be "C:\ProgramData\Desktop", by using the environment variable you don't need to care.


Then you can make it a startup (Computer Configuration) script rather than logon (User Configuration), and it will execute just the one time, before the first logon.

Regardless of who logs on (including local users), the icons on the common desktop will be presented and cannot be removed except by admins (but they would re-appear on the next boot when the Domain Controller is available).

[Jay]

yes but he has 4 groups so that wouldn't work

[Paul Adams]

4 different scripts would be required if the groups of users require different shortcuts however it is arranged.

I tend to find that applications are client-specific rather than user-specific (otherwise you can end up with shortcuts that point to apps that are not present on the client), so put Computer Configuration policies & startup scripts to handle that kind of distribution.

Policies can be created in the AD root and filtered out using permissions applied to groups of computers rather than users to deliver just 1 script per client - or OUs can be created for the clients based on the departments/locations and the group policies applied per OU.

[Jay]

Maybe we are saying the same thing here

This is how I would do it...

If it is a single domain with 4 locations using 4 different sets of apps and the users from each site never go to any other site then that is easy, this can be done with Groups in AD, probably best to be done via the Computer Config and seperate the PCs into 4 groups.

If you have 4 groups of users who can use any PC but each of the 4 groups use different apps this is a little harder. You would need all the apps to be installed on all ths PCs (this can be done via GPO as well) and then you would have 4 groups in AD for the users then simply change the script I posted above to create the icons for each group under user config.

I have done some pretty mad stuff with group policy in AD for some huge ADs and if done right it can save you a HUGE amount of time but if you mess it up you can really cause some head aches.

I always have a Test group with some XP VMs on ESXi to test my GPO stuff before I roll it out.

[Paul Adams]

Maybe we are saying the same thing here

Probably, I think the distinction is just when the script gets run to do the job, and what folder it updates/syncs

My experience with group policy is a bit rusty (it's been over 5 years since I was a BOFH), but I tend to go for the once-per-boot option over the once-per-logon where possible, most likely the wannabe programmer in me that wants to make it efficient