Continuing in the vein of my previous post where I want to try and apply more settings via registry key changes to the default user profile as opposed to a GPO change, I thought I should have one place where in I can put the info I find.
Setting the wallpaper
Via this forum post.
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REG LOAD "HKU\DefUser" "C:\Users\Default Users\ntuser.dat" REG ADD "HKU\DefUser\Control Panel\Desktop" /v "Wallpaper" /d "C:\wallpaper.jpg" REG ADD "HKU\DefUser\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes" /v "CurrentTheme" /d "C:\ThemeName.theme" REG UNLOAD "HKU\DefUser" |
Bear in mind this works like a preference not a policy. Users will be able to change the theme and wallpaper. That’s not what I want, so I won’t be using this – but it’s good info to have handy.
Setting IE proxy settings
By default Windows has per user proxy settings. But it is possible to set a registry key so the proxy settings are per machine.
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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings] "ProxySettingsPerUser"=dword:00000000 |
Setting the color scheme in Server 2012
Via Server Fault: two registry values at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM.
I’ve linked to this earlier, but this seems to be a good place to link to again: changing the start menu colors and background solid colors etc.
Drive Mappings
Look under HKCU\Network.
Environment Variables
Look under HKCU\Environment.
Changing the location of the default profile
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList and change the value of Default.
Removing the list of newly installed apps
Via this blog post:
Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced and add a value called Start_NotifyNewApps of data 0 and type DWORD.
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I am feeling less enthusiastic about replacing GPPs with a default use profile. I like the idea and it’s fast but the problem is that I can imagine users making changes and hence their profiles not being consistent with others. At least with GPPs I know there’s a baseline I can expect as the registry keys I expect will be present in the user profile; but with a default profile I have no such guarantee. If a user goes on and deletes one of my default registry keys, it won’t come back on next login unless I delete the profile.
Started thinking of mandatory profiles and came across this XenApp best practices post from Citrix. Probably wont go that route either but it’s good to keep in mind.
