Acrive Directory Users and Computers
Active Directory, Active Directory Users and Computers, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows XP Pro SP3, Windows XP Professional
I provide support for a small school network running Windows Server 2003 on its server and Windows XP Pro SP3 on all of its clients. I want to set up user accounts that will remember user default setting no matter which client machine is used. All users need to map a network drive and various network printers. So far I have built a test account and I hve no problem logging into that account but none of the settings are saved when I log out. Please advise.
Also, I need to set this up so that all students' accounts look the same and they can't change them. All of the desktop shortcuts, wallpaper, Internet home pages and screen resolution need to be identical. How can I accomplish this?
Thank you!!
Robert
Software/Hardware used:
Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Pro SP2
Software/Hardware used:
Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Pro SP2
ASKED:
September 11, 2009 11:06 AM
UPDATED:
July 21, 2010 4:11 PM
Answer Wiki:
You can use GPOs to set the all those settings which will prevent them from changing them.
If the user will be saving files to the my documents folder and they want those files available on all machines you've got a couple of options.
1. You can use folder redirection to redirect the folders to a network share on the server.
2. You can setup roaming profiles so that every time the user logs into a workstation the files are copied from the server to the workstation.
Roaming profiles are nice because if the server isn't available they can still access the files, all be it an older version of the files. However you will quickly start having machine running out of space as the files start to fill up the workstations C drives.
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OK, I have never used folder redirection before. How does it work and how do I use it? And where do I find the roaming profiles? I have over 200 users and when they log in they get a message that their roaming profile can’t be found.
Thanks!!
Folder redirection is configured via a GPO and tells the client machines to redirect the specified folders to a network share. For example you can redirect the MyDocuments folder to a networks share so that when something is saved to the MyDocuments folder it actually is saved to the server instead.
If you are getting errors using roaming profiles you should address that issues before trying any other configurations.
To lock down the machines, use GPOs on machine configuration settings to avoid having USB drives being connected and other machine drivers from being altered. User configuration settings will block the individual users from customizing machines. Just make sure that if you do something like lock IE from enabling users to change the homepage, etc. that you do it in ALL setting areas (IE.exe, IE icon desktop, IE icon on taskbar). Try this on your test account first to make sure that you get the settings you want then, add this to the domain, OU settings so it’ll take effect for all users and machines. GPOs are both fun and frustrating. Good luck!