Need the bginfo setting for all users

Hi All,

I have a similar requirement.

I am the network administrator of a 2000 user school and would like to have BGInfo deployed to all desktops and laptops in the school to make support abit easier.

My questions are as follows:

1 - Can BGInfo be run for users without admin rights
2 - If the answer to question 1 is no then is it possible under windows XP to make BGInfo "RunAs" the administrator
3 - I guess this is the big one, I have not really looked at the licence info (I guess I should really) but am I allowed to deploy BGInfo to 2000 desktops.

Anyhelp would be great

Regards,

Ozzie

I've ran into the same issue and my solution was:

1. Don't use the /all switch. 

2. Mod the registry HKLM/software/Microsoft/Windows/run and put in the command-line there.

That's it.

We run bginfo.exe from the netlogon on folder.  Users don't have to have admin rights to the .exe this way and you can have multiple configurations for different OUs, groups and or users and or machines.  However you do have to give users read/write access to c:\windows\bgi.bmp (you can add a cacls statement to your logon script to accomplish that).

Put a copy of bginfo in the netlogon folder.
Double click on it to open it and modify it as desired.
Close it, choosing to save with the bgi extension (ie student.bgi and teacher.bgi)
Call it from your logon script (depending on the language used for your logon script) with a line simillar to:

"\\server\netlogon\bginfo.exe \\server\netlogon\student.bgi /timer:0"

The /timer:0 forces bgi right into action so users don't get the chance to modify the settings you have created.

With help from others on this forum, I have learned that there is a million things you can have displayed on the ussers desktop.  Let me know if you want some suggestions (I'm a fellow school computer administrator).

Jeremy

Hey Jayna,

What kind of login script are you using?  Is it a batch file or a kix script or a vbscript...

Jeremy

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