Windows Vista - Default Profiles + Mass Deployment - Any Advice?

[KSoD]

Yes Win7 is the same exact way. It has the Users\<username>\ followed by the Local, Local Low and Roaming.

There isnt a answer cause you have tried everything that can be tried. Even searching Microsoft.com comes up with the same stuff you have tried. So unless you want to contact Microsoft directly there is nothing more that we can give as support.

 

[Jayce]

Yes Win7 is the same exact way. It has the Users\<username>\ followed by the Local, Local Low and Roaming.

There isnt a answer cause you have tried everything that can be tried. Even searching Microsoft.com comes up with the same stuff you have tried. So unless you want to contact Microsoft directly there is nothing more that we can give as support.

That's hard to believe, though. Microsoft has its roots so deep in school districts, businesses, etc. It has to be possible to get a default profile ironed out. It just has to be. Otherwise, Vista + 7 will be 100% useless to our district and we'll be cranking out XP for the next 100 years.

There's very specific settings that we must set up for each program. We run a truckload of programs, enough that 1 image could easily take 3-4 days to get fully working.

I'm going to keep digging around, but I'm on a severe time restraint to get these pc's flyin...

 

[KSoD]

There.are ways but it is something that is even beyond the scope of info that even i know. It would be something covered in the Vista Admin course that Microsoft has. Which is something i have not done yet.

Let me check some more sources i have and contact a few people i know and call in some favors. The thing is what your looking for is beyond normal technical support and more IT Administrator based. So it is not something that 90% of the people on a free support forum would know.

 

[Jayce]

There.are ways but it is something that is even beyond the scope of info that even i know. It would be something covered in the Vista Admin course that Microsoft has. Which is something i have not done yet.

Let me check some more sources i have and contact a few people i know and call in some favors. The thing is what your looking for is beyond normal technical support and more IT Administrator based. So it is not something that 90% of the people on a free support forum would know.

Yeah, I understand. It still scares me though to consider Vista's age (it's not like it came out 3 days ago) and the fact that every single post I read on Google says something different, followed by a lack of answers.

I'll do some digging as well. I just got word that all of the Vista machines are in-house now.

Here we gooooo!! (where's my drink at??)

 

[KSoD]

Search Bing. They will have more answers direct from Microsoft from their newsgroups and forums. I have some Vista books that i will reference. But it might take me a couple of days to get in contact with some people. Being the weekend and all.

 

[KSoD]

Windows Vista includes several special identities that are reserved for software and system processes and are never used by human users. The Batch identity provides permissions for any batch process (such as a job launched via Task Scheduler) that needs to access a resource on the computer. The Service, Local Service, and Network Service identities are used by system services and are controlled by the operating system.

The System identity allows the operating system itself to access protected resources. Similarly, the TrustedInstaller identity (new in Windows Vista) owns most operating system files. TrustedInstaller (which is a service, not a user; its complete name is “NT SERVICE”\ TrustedInstaller) provides additional protection for those files, because in previous versions of Windows, the Administrators group owned and had full control over them; because most users ran as administrators, a malicious program could run in the context of a user to delete or replace parts of Windows. As a general rule, permissions for these groups are set by the operating system and should never be adjusted by users.

Tampering with the default permissions on the drive that contains Windows system files is a bad idea. As part of the setup process, Windows Vista applies specific permissions to the root of the system drive; to the Windows, System32, and Users folders; and to specific subfolders within each of these locations. Changing the default permissions will not improve security and will almost certainly cause some users or programs to have problems.

Here is some information about Vista User Accounts. With that being said i think, again think, i might have a solution.

Have you made sure to take ownership of the files and all that? If so then copy them over. Now right click on the Default User folder. Here Select Security. Then Click Advanced. Now Click Edit again to change the permission level. Default User has only limited control. So you will have to change this to give the account the control you want. You should see that it has inherited the C:\Users permissions. Edit that to give it full control or what ever you need for the school and then apply it.

See if this allows for you to get the Default Profile to act the way you need it to. It is basically like the Tutorial i have written up for Taking Ownership of files.

http://www.techist.com/forums/f9/how-take-ownership-files-vista-155100/

It is just that you will be selecting the Everyone User Group. Which is the Default User Profile folder permissions. This is just a theory, not sure if it will work but with just a short bit of reading i thought of this.

 

[Jayce]

Let's throw a scenario in the mix.

administrator is my local account that has things set up the way I want. I want all other accounts to log in and bring down the EXACT same profile administrator has. So if I create a local user named bob with administrator rights, and I copy the administrator contents to the default profile, essentially that's correct. The trick is, the default user profile is limited in access, therefore restricting certain pieces of the profile to be transferred/accessed properly.

Sooooo you're suggesting to open the default user with wide open permissions to allow future logins to inherit EVERYTHING of the default profile (based off of the administrator account) instead of just grabbing bits and pieces that aren't held back by permissions.

Is that your drift?

 

[KSoD]

Pretty much. Its worth a try.

 

[Jayce]

Pretty much. Its worth a try.

Rock on. I'll give it a shot on Monday and see what happens.

Thanks, Mak!

 

[KSoD]

Hopefully by then i will be able to find out some more info for you.