The time came to finally trial redirecting user Application Data folders to a network share, rather than have them roam on the network. I knew how to do it, but it never seemed to work properly, so I’d not done it previously.
This week, I gave it another crack. And it works! Sort of.
Unfortunately, although it correctly maps Application Data back to the server, all the settings in Internet Explorer (like the branding and, most importantly, proxy stuff) fail to apply.
After much searching, it seems this is a problem with XP Pro SP2. It’s fixed in SP3, but I can’t move to SP3 just yet. Thankfully, Microsoft supply a hotfix. Sadly, it’s an exe, and not a nice, happy msi, making deployment to 700+ machines a bit of a chore.
To make matters worse, you have to add a few registry keys in addition to installing the hotfix. Why these aren’t part of the hotfix itself is something only the loons at Microsoft can explain.
So, on a single machine, install the above hotfix, then add the following registry keys:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl]
“*”=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_GPO_BRANDING_WITH_FOLDER_REDIRECTION_KB888254]
“*”=dword:00000001
You can copy and paste that to a text file and rename it as a .reg file if you like.
How do you deploy all this to a million computers? You go round each one in turn and do it manually, of course! Or, you could do what I did, and track down an install script. I found one at the ever-expensive, but easily bypassed, Experts-Exchange. Here, in fact. If you’re wondering how to bypass the “All comments and solutions are available to Premium Service Members only.” prompt, simply scroll down the page to the end. Amazing.
Anyway, the script provided didn’t work quite right, but I modified to work just fine:
if exist c:\HotfixB888254.flg goto END
regedit /s "\\server\path\to\files\HotfixB888254.reg"
copy "\\server\path\to\files\HotfixB888254.flg" c:\HotfixB888254.flg
copy "\\server\path\to\files\HotfixB888254.exe" %systemroot%\Temp\KB888254.exe
%systemroot%\Temp\KB888254.exe /quiet /forcerestart
:END
What you need:
- A reg file with the above keys in it, named HotfixB888254.reg
- A blank file renamed to HotfixB888254.flg
- The hotfix, renamed KB888254.exe
Plonk the script file somewhere on the network you can access it via a startup group policy, and Robert is a relative.
