Hi all,

Been busy getting my unattended stuff together over last few days for company i work in and got quite a bit of my standard setup sorted but couldnt find anything to do with hiding the desktop icon.

Basically when you save stuff, in the drop down menu there is "desktop" listed. Is there any way to get rid of this (i know how to hide drives and done this)? Or alternatively is there any way to prevent people using the C drive (local drive(s))? I just want to encourage people to save on the network than on the local hard drive(s). So i am trying to prevent every way possible for them doing this, but thats the latest hurdle i have faced. Any ideas on a registry fix for this or another possible way?

Thanx in advance people

Nick

I know it is possible to give permission to user throught windows. I think what you want is for it to automatically do that for you. I don't know of any ways to do that.

well i have managed to solve the saving anywhere on c:\ with using the "noviewondrive" and "nodrive" regfixes but hmm they can still able to save on desktop. i dont really fancy giving permissions on each pc (or was you thinking of something else?) as ideally would be an automated feature done in the build. we use novell at work and i guess there probably is a way to deploy some of this by netware/zenworks but then theres the problem of laptops offsite......so ideally a quick pc fix will be best solution but any help will be grateful

Cheers

Nick

if you want to use a security template which gets applied during the installation, have a look at these files on the windows cd/share:

defltp.inf - xp home

defltwk.inf - xp pro

defltsv.inf - server 2003

they are compressed so you have to: expand, edit, makecab, overwrite original

i havent had a look through the entire file but if it can be done, i'd guess this is the place to do it

try checking gosh's website i think he has some info on security template editing

oops double post - deleted

this page may or may not prove useful....

http://www.j79zlr.com/gphome.php

it deals with group policies, but I've never delved into group policies before (except on how to bypass them at work )

Let's have a fresh thought (and angle/point of view).

Why not map the "Desktop" folder to a network location, instead of being on the local machine's C: drive? You could make the Desktop folder to be fetched from "\\ServerName\Profiles\%UserName%\Desktop".

How to do the above?

1. Of course, the folder by the user's name and desktop should already exist on the server (Novell Netware?).

2. Then, on your existing windows install, this registry key should interest you:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders]
"Desktop"="\\\\ServerName\\Profiles\\%UserName%\\Desktop"

Note the double-slashes wherever there's a single slash.

3. Modify it (to actual variable path without double-slashes in registry, or to actual variable path with double-slashes if editing the .reg export).

4. Save it and apply it during T-13 (through cmdlines.txt).

This method is far simpler, and easily "Administrable". I suppose any mistake in the process I describe above can be easily 'trouble-shoot'ed by you (or the others helping you here). All the best!