rick heckbert

Hi,
We have a bunch of public machines here in our library that are using
mandatory roaming profiles. We recently discontinued the use of an
application and so had to delete its icon from the desktop. This is ok but
of course it was the 3rd out of only 5 icons arranged vertically on the
desktop and its absence left a very asthetically unpleasing hole on the
desktop. I can change the position of the remaining icons but when we
reboot they revert back to their origianl locations. I'd really rather not
have to go to all the trouble of uploading a new roaming profile for these
machines as it seems every time we do we cause problems in other areas.
I have looked for the location of desktop icons on the interent and I think
I have it narrowed down to
HKCU_Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Exp lorer . . .
After this it gets fuzzy. One post I saw said it was in the Streams key of
the above but that was for 98.

Also, I read it was the
HKCU_Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Deskt op
another place said the
HKCU_Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Exp lorer\Streams\Desktop
Does anyone know what key it saves the location in and if so how to decode
those locations?

Due to the fact that we are using roaming mandatory profiles and there are a
couple different profiles to update plus permission issues in updating the
profile plus I would have to wait till we weren't open so no one else would
mess everything up by logging off a puvlic machine while I was doing this .
.. . It would be a lot easier if I could jsut change it in the registry

Thanks!

pegasus \(mvp\)

I think you're wasting your time. With roaming profiles, the registry
gets copied from your server drive to your local drive, hence any
changes you make to the local registry will be overwritten when you
next log on.

rick heckbert

I realize that but what I am trying to do is edit the centrally stored
ntuser.man file itself

You can load a server stroed reg file using regedt32 and the load hive
function

Thanks

pegasus \(mvp\)

If this is what you're trying to do then it would probably be easier
to make your change locally while logged on as domain user X, then
log on under a local admin account, then copy X's profile folder
manually back to the appropriate home folder.

rick heckbert

That won't work because as soon as you log on as another user, any changes
you made as the previous user are lost when using roaming mandatory
profiles. The profile you would see as admin is an old one adn in this case
is the original one we copied up to the server.
One thought I did have was to get into the local ntuser.dat.log file and ge
the changes from there but it is giving me error messages when I try to
access it, even from another profile

Rick

pegasus \(mvp\)

I disagree. When you log off as domain user X, the profile folder
for X persists. When you subsequently log on as local user Y
then you can manipulate X's profile folder.

You can easily prove this, by running this test:
1. Log on as a local admin.
2. Wipe X's local profile folder.
3. Log on as X (domain validation)
4. You will now find a new profile folder for X.
5. Log off as X, then log on locally as Y.
6. Check X's profile folder. It's still there!