Re: General discussion around logon scripts

Tony wrote:

We are shortly moving our organisation to a purpose built location. We
are a counselling charity call centre and have started to employe inbound
consultants. Our central office will also be moving in shortly. I am
looking at setting logon scripts to set file and printer shares as well as
roaming profiles for the telephone consultants. I would be interested on
the communitys views on what should or should not be included in the
scripts - access to Internet Options, allowing users to set own desktops
(or not) etc.

I would also be interested in where I could go to learn about such things
and whether a batch file or vbscript woulfd be better. Server 2003 and
all clients XP.

The language you use (batch or VBScript or whatever) depends on what you
want to do and what language you are familiar with. VBScript is more
powerful. If all clients are XP or above, it would make sense to use Group
Policy to configure logon scripts. I have an FAQ linked here:

http://www.rlmueller.net/LogonScriptFAQ.htm

Generally, configuration changes might be done in a logon script, but
everything should be initially setup with some other mechanism. If
configuration changes are made I like to have some way to tell which
computers/users have the changes, not just to avoid repeating the
modification, but also so I know when to remove the relevant code. I code so
the script writes to a log file, for example. I try to have the script check
if the change has already been made. All changes to the computer should be
done with a Startup script. Changes to the user should be done in a logon
script. Most changes to the computer can be done remotely in bulk.

The most common tasks in logon scripts are mapping drives, mapping printers,
setting default printers, making sure printer drivers are installed, and
perhaps logging information. If anything depends on group membership, you
either need third party tools and should use VBScript.

I have example VBScript logon scripts that map drives and printers according
to group membership linked here:

http://www.rlmueller.net/freecode2.htm

--
Richard Mueller
Microsoft MVP Scripting and ADSI
Hilltop Lab - http://www.rlmueller.net
--


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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Lab Domain Layout - SOS
    ... So the Servers and Workstation GPOs DO have logon scripts assigned at ... But because the labadmin user is assigned ... >>Seperate logon scripts are defined for both the Server OU, and Workstation ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.active_directory)
  • Re: Lab Domain Layout - SOS
    ... So the Servers and Workstation GPOs DO have logon scripts assigned at ... But because the labadmin user is assigned ... >>Seperate logon scripts are defined for both the Server OU, and Workstation ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.group_policy)
  • Re: Logon Sequence
    ... If you mean logon scripts etc. for domain computers, ... Description of the Windows XP Professional Fast Logon Optimization ... oShell.RegWrite sRegValue, 1, "REG_DWORD" ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: batch file
    ... Only logging on has to do with logon scripts. ... this is commonly because your XP machines aren't using an AD ... > that bootup on XP is too fast for startup batch files to take effect. ...
    (microsoft.public.scripting.vbscript)
  • Printer script and user admin rights
    ... I have created several scripts in vbscript to add/change paths to printers on ... which they are being run have local administrative rights. ...
    (microsoft.public.scripting.vbscript)