"All users" in Vista

[cross]

So I just setup my first vista machine at work, and was able to get all the apps installed that we need!
Heres my question:
We normally add the shortcuts for the apps to the all users\deskop so that when a person logs on for the first time (IE no profile for that person while I'm working on it) they will have the shortcuts to our apps on their desktop.

Vista aparently has done away with the "all users" desktop.
Has this been replaced by something equally as usefull for me? Or do I now have to setup these shortcuts after the user has log'd on for the first time...?

[4cr0nDk]

AFAIK...

You should have an "Users" folder in the root system (commonly C:\) there you'll find the folders of each account (C:\Users\User1 - C:\Users\User2 and so on....)

Inside each user/account folder you'll find the "Desktop" folder where you need to place the shortcuts for each account.



Regards

[cross]

yea, i'm just wondering about future profiles that are made after the machine has already been deployed. With xp, in the all users folder, any new profile made would already have the needed shortcuts. It seems now I will have to set up each machine (make shortcuts) everytime a new user logs onto that station.

[Aardpsymon]

Eugh. That sounds like fun. Assuming vista still uses AD there is an option in group policy to redirect folders.

Group policy of your choice -> User Configuration -> Folder Redirection -> Desktop

Down side to this is that all shortcuts are then stored on the server or some other machine that must be on 24/7, but this is the way we manage the desktop and start menu. Every user group has a folder on the server. When we install new apps we add the shortcut to the server. Other downside to this is that everyone sees the shortcut to every installed app in the company not just the ones installed on the local machine.

http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/..._redirect.html

[greygnome]

The problem with folder redirection would be that everybody would then share the same desktop. at least all of the users with the folders redirected. The all users feature of older os's allowed each user to have their own desktops, but also whatever content had been added to the all-users profile. I'm kinda curious what alternative ms has replaced this with if indeed the all users option is gone.

Is there an option for editing the default profile so that all future accounts created on that machine would start out with those shortcuts? Granted, that wouldn't be any help for existing users.

[seankubin@gmail.com]

The "All users" folder is moved to here: C:\Users\Public\Desktop

For others that may be googling this..
I used to have a problem with XP- where there would be several 'all users' folders. Some machines in the environment would dual boot, so there would be "allusers.xp" or "all users.winxp" in the documents and settings folder.

This (winxp)registry key would tell you what the working "all users" folder is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\AllUsersProfile

But this knowledge is no longer needed with vista. pitty.. It took me along time to stumble upon that.