Hello

I appreciate your continued help.  We do have Active Directory, and I tried putting the line in a test user's logon script, but it didn't seem to execute that way.  I will probably tinker around with that some more.  When I tried to use the GPO to force the script to run minimized it did not work - it still ran the way it did before, with the command window up on the screen for a few seconds.

Also, I've tried right-clicking the batch file and going to Properties and looking for the "Program" tab, and there is no such tab on the batch file I'm working with, or any other ones that I've seen on our network.  So, since there was no Program tab, none of those options to run the batch file minimized are available.  Is there a way that that tab might've been turned off or something?

Thanks again!

Are you using Active Directory?  If so you can apply a GPO (Group Policy Object) to force the script to rum minimized so your users wont' be able to see and or close it.  Then you should copy the line you wrote in your startup folder batch file to your users logon script (assuming you have copied the bginfo folder and its contents to each computer). 

If you're not running active directory, you could try this from http://malektips.com/95wdo0014.html:

1. Right mouse-click on the batch file you wish to run, and choose Properties.
2. You will be brought to the standard MS-DOS properties box. Click on the "Program" tab.
3. Check "Close on Exit". This makes sure the batch file fully exits when it is complete.
4. Click on the "Run:" pull-down, and choose "Minimize." Now, when this batch file executes, it will no longer show a DOS session - most people will think it is a Windows 95 program!
5. Next, change the caption to whatever you wish, and perhaps change the icon.
6. Click OK to save the changes.

You now have a shortcut to the batch file that, when executed, runs and exits just like any other Windows 95 program, keeping its source, a DOS batch file, practically a secret.

Let me know what other questions you have,

Jeremy

Jeremy,

Thanks for your detailed post.  I'm not sure how exactly we'll get the BGInfo thing to apply to all of our users on our 3 facilities' computers, but as I'm testing it right now, I was able to make it work locally.

What I did was create a folder called "bginfo" on the C:\ drive, and I put bginfo.exe in there, as well as my configuration file called user.bgi.  I then made a batch file in Notepad and saved it to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Program Files\Startup.  The batch file simply has this line:

c:\bginfo\bginfo.exe c:\bginfo\user.bgi /timer:0

It works fine for every one of my test users that I've logged onto my test computer, but I'd like to put a line or a switch in that bat file to make it run either minimized or invisibly so that users can't see the little cmd window that pops up as it's going (it's not up for long, but I don't want them to be able to close it accidentally or anything).  I have been looking into this, and I've heard that you can right-click the .bat file and go to Properties and tell it to run minimized, but I've tried that and I don't have that option available to me for some reason.

Like I said, I'm not sure how we'll eventually end up putting this in place, but I would like to know how to make it as invisible as possible to users. 

Thanks again! 

Hi Jayna,

Adding the following line to your batch file should work to change the permissions on the .bmp file bginfo creates.  You may need to change c:\winnt to c:\windows depending on how your computers are setup. 

cacls c:\winnt\bginfo.bmp /E /G everyone:F

The only concern I have is that it might not work because your users may not have the correct group membership (I think they may need to be administrators).  So instead of putting the line in your users' batch file, here is another suggestion.

1. Open a cmd prompt
2. Type in net view > view.txt (this will pipe a list of all your networked computers to a text file).
3. Open the view.txt file in Excel
4. Delete all text ecept for the computer names
5. Insert a colum  in front of the computer names and behind the computer name.
6. In the new first colum, add the text "cacls \\"
7. In the new last coumn, add the text "c$\winnt\bginfo.bmp /E /G everyone:F 
8. Use the auto fill tool to fill in all the cells before and after the computer names with the appropriate text.
9. Close the Excel file choosing to save your changes.
10. Open the view.txt document in Word
11. Choose Replace from the Edit menu
12. Click on the More button and then the Special button
13. Choose the Tab Character
14. That will put the tab character in the Find What field.  In the Replace with field, leave a space (tap the space bar once).
15. Click on Replace All. 
16. That should leave you with a bunch of lines that look like "cacls \\computername\c$\winnt\bginfo.bmp /E /G everyone:F"
17. Between the first and second line and the third and fourth line add the word Pause.  This will pause the script a couple of times before it runs completely.  That will allow you to view the file's first couple of tries at modifying the bginfo.bmp file.  If you see an error message instead of the message 'file processed' you'll know you have to fix up something.
18. Close Word, chooseing to save your changes.
19. Rename the file to something like cacls.bat.
20. Double click on it to make it run and it should change the permissions on the bginfo.bmp file for every computer.  (You should be running it from an account that has administrator access).

Let me know if you need more detailed instructions.  Also, let me know how it goes.

Good luck!
Jeremy