Weblog Sander Wilmink

To add printers per user during the logon you need to add logon scripts to the computer. You can deploy scripts through the Active Directory policies or by creating a local policy per computer. To create a manageable environment it is the best to attach the script to a policy. By applying the policy to a Organisational Unit you can roll-out the script on the objects in the Organisational Unit. Logon- and Logoffscripts can be applied to Users and Startup- and Shutdownscripts can be applied to Computers.

For adding logon scripts to a policy in Active Directory:

By opening the Group Policy Object Editor and expanding Windows Settings under User Configuration. Select Scripts and you will see this screen:

Dubbelclick on Logon and click the Show Files (1) button in the next screen. You can easily copy and paste your script into this folder. The location where the logon script will be stored is %SystemRoot%\SYSVOL\sysvol\<DOMAIN>\Policies\<GUID>\USER\Scripts\Logon. Now click on Add (2) and the next screen will appear.

By clicking on the Browse button you can select the script you just pasted in the scripts folder.

When you want to clear the last username from the username box in the login-screen you need to change some settings in the registry. This is a part of Windows where everything is set into keys and values. By changing wrong things, the system can be damaged. So please be careful whit changing things. This article is about changing options in the login-screen, so it would not have effect on the rest of the system.

1. Go to Start, Run and type ‘regedit’.
2. Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system 
3. On the right side of the screen you will see the key ‘dontdisplaylastusername’. This will clear the last username from the logon-screen.

To create a nice looking profile for every new user there is a Default profile. Every user related setting will be saved into that profile. For example the start-menu, background and the Quick Launch bar will be stored in the Default profile and will be loaded when a new user logs in. To create the Default profile do the following:

1. Log on to the computer as the administrator, and then create a local user account. 
2. Log off as the administrator, and then log on to the computer through the local user account that you just created. 
3. Customize the profile appropriately. For example, install printers and map necessary drives. 
4. Log off as the local user, and then log back on as the administrator. 
5. Because several of the files in the profile are hidden and must be copied into the new custom default user profile, turn on the Show hidden files and folders option:
   1. Double-click My Computer, click Tools, and then click Folder Options.
   2. On the View tab, under Advanced settings, click Show hidden files and folders, and then click OK.
6. Replace the current default user profile with the customized default user profile:a. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
   1. Double-click System.
   2. On the User Profiles tab, click the user profile that you just created, and then click Copy To. 
   3. In the Copy To dialog box, under Copy profile to, click Browse, click the “%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Default User” folder, and then click OK. 
   4. Under Permitted to use, click Change, click Everyone, and then click OK.

Note that permissions issues will result if the custom user profile is created when you log on as an administrator.

There are two ways to create a user in Windows XP. This article describes the two ways.

First way:

1. Go to your Control Panel.
2. With the Category View or Classic View selected, choose User Accounts. 
3. Click on Create a new user.
4. Enter the details and choose a password.
5. The user is created.

Second way.

1. Right click on My Computer and choose Manage. 
2. This will open Computer Management. On the left side you will find Local Users and Groups. 
3. Open the container Users in the right side of the screen. 
4. Go to the Action menu and click New User. 
5. Fill in all details and choose a password. After that click Finish. The user is created.

After running the mini-setup in Sysprep the default profile, you have made, is deleted. The profile from the Administrator is copied over. To fix this problem Microsoft wrote a knowledge-base article which you can find here.

You need to contact the support-desk for the hot-fix. Here you can find the phone-numbers from Microsoft. Referring to KB article 887816 they will send the hot-fix by email. You can also contact them through the link in the KB article on the support-website from Microsoft.

Microsoft Knowledge Base – KB887816