$Docs and $Progs Directories

[mbartosh]

The $Docs and $Progs folders are mentioned for unattended setup in the MSFN web site, but I do not find any documentation for these folders on Technet and the Microsoft Web site. I was wondering if these directories work for Windows 2000 Professional unattended setup. I have tried them and they are not working, unless I am doing something wrong. The $1 directory is work for me. So, I think I have the right directory structure.

[prathapml]

@mbartosh

Welcome to MSFN.

About the directory structure:

No, you're not doing anything wrong. Except, the unattended guide there is mainly oriented towards WinXP. And XP has a lot of deployment features enhanced, compared to win2k.

On Win2k, only these folders are confirmed to work-

$1 (for %systemdrive%), $$ (for %systemroot%) and $Docs (for "Documents and Settings").

The $Progs folder seems to be an addition, with XP.

[^_^]

seems there should be a way to get the $Docs to copy to the users MyDocuments folder instead of the Documents and Settings folder tho

Twould be handy for office settings where everyone needs templates of the same document, and wouldn't have to look beyond the MyDocuments folder

[Denney]

seems there should be a way to get the $Docs to copy to the users MyDocuments folder instead of the Documents and Settings folder tho

Twould be handy for office settings where everyone needs templates of the same document, and wouldn't have to look beyond the MyDocuments folder

The reason you can't do that is because $Docs and other $OEM$ directories get copied at the text-based portion of setup.

At that stage, setup doesn't know about any user accounts, therefore, it cannot copy files to it.

Just thought I'd clarify that.

[prathapml]

seems there should be a way to get the $Docs to copy to the users MyDocuments folder instead of the Documents and Settings folder tho

Of course there's a way. Because, if you think of it, the MyDocs is just a folder inside the Docs&Settings folder. To put the needed templates in the MyDocs folder of every user who will be created, put the files in this folder structure:

$OEM$\$Docs\Default User\My Documents\

[MHz]

You maybe right prathapml, but it could be a trick question. You can have a different template for the same filetype. Users have separate template folders. So default user would not do this.

[^_^]

Thanks prathapml, that's an excellent idea why didn't I think of that? .

And I'll be testing it out shortly, and will post the results in this thread

[^_^]

Yep, it works

even with account creation by script and autologin enabled

so it's a keeper

[risolutore]

but has anyone solved the read only issue with OEM folder? If you copy connection setting *pbk you will unable to change...

:-( how to bypass it? using runoncec,m with a batch file that change file attributes?

[^_^]

Well, I hadn't run into that at this point

but yeah, guess now I'll have to put a line in my batch file to remove the +r attribute