Chapter 10: Managing the User Working Environments

Overview

Let every hour be in its place Firm fixed, nor loosely shift, And well enjoy the vacant space, As though a birthday gift.

Lewis Carroll.
"Punctuality"

The user work environment includes various desktop settings, including color scheme, mouse settings, size and position of the windows, network connections and printers, environment variables, registry settings and available applications. There are many conventional methods for managing user work environments, including the following:

• User profiles
  User profiles contain all the settings for the user-specific Windows work environment, including user documents, mail messages, application configuration settings and preferences, screen settings, network connections and so on.

• Scripts
  Logon script is the batch (BAT) or executable (EXE) file that runs any time you log onto the network from any of the workstations connected to it. Logon scripts can contain various operating system commands; for example, ones that restore network connections and start applications, or set environment variables (such as set paths using the PATH variable or specify the folder to store temporary files using the TEMP variable).

• System policies
  The system policy is used for managing user work environments and their permissions within the network. System administrators can use the system policies for managing user workstations both in local and global networks.

In this chapter, we'll discuss user profiles and system policies. I'll also provide some instructions on their usage to modify the system registry.