We have a new win server 2008. About 30 odd users in the domain. We would
like to prevent users saving to desktop and force them to save to their
network drive only. They have roaming profiles. We have tried to select the
deny write option on a users desktop folder in their profile but to no avail.
We have also tried a group policy to deny all users access to desktop but
they can still still save and we get a message when they log off that their
files can't be saved.



Is it possible to maybe prevent the desktop being an option when saving
items to the desktop or introduce an access denied message displayed to the
user?

Try "folder redirection" to place the desktop in the users home folder. Then
when they save to the desktop it will be in the home folder. With roaming
profiles all the folders in the profile should be redirected to avoid the issue
of having a very large profile.

On Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:59:02 -0700, outlook novice
<outlooknovice@newsgroup> wrote:

>We have a new win server 2008. About 30 odd users in the domain. We would
>like to prevent users saving to desktop and force them to save to their
>network drive only. They have roaming profiles. We have tried to select the
>deny write option on a users desktop folder in their profile but to no avail.
>We have also tried a group policy to deny all users access to desktop but
>they can still still save and we get a message when they log off that their
>files can't be saved.
>
>Is it possible to maybe prevent the desktop being an option when saving
>items to the desktop or introduce an access denied message displayed to the
>user?

--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.

we have tried folder redirection and found that the items saved on desktop
appears both on the desktop and on their shared drive. Is there any other way
to prevent this?

Tried through group policy also using Computer Configuration / Windows
Settings / Security Settings / File System. Then add 2 files,

%AllUsersProfile%\Desktop

%UserProfile%\Desktop

"DaveMills" wrote:

> Try "folder redirection" to place the desktop in the users home folder. Then
> when they save to the desktop it will be in the home folder. With roaming
> profiles all the folders in the profile should be redirected to avoid the issue
> of having a very large profile.
>
> On Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:59:02 -0700, outlook novice
> <outlooknovice@newsgroup> wrote:
>

> >We have a new win server 2008. About 30 odd users in the domain. We would
> >like to prevent users saving to desktop and force them to save to their
> >network drive only. They have roaming profiles. We have tried to select the
> >deny write option on a users desktop folder in their profile but to no avail.
> >We have also tried a group policy to deny all users access to desktop but
> >they can still still save and we get a message when they log off that their
> >files can't be saved.
> >
> >Is it possible to maybe prevent the desktop being an option when saving
> >items to the desktop or introduce an access denied message displayed to the
> >user?

> --
> Dave Mills
> There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
>

Actually i have managed to prevent users saving to desktop using your initial
idea of folder re-direction and have hidden a file it it being re-directed
to. For example when a user tries to save in word, they receive an error
message "access denied, contact an administrator". It is possible to change
this warning to say all files must be saved to your own home drive?

"outlook novice" wrote:

> we have tried folder redirection and found that the items saved on desktop
> appears both on the desktop and on their shared drive. Is there any other way
> to prevent this?
>
> Tried through group policy also using Computer Configuration / Windows
> Settings / Security Settings / File System. Then add 2 files,
>
> %AllUsersProfile%\Desktop
>
> %UserProfile%\Desktop
>
> "DaveMills" wrote:
>

> > Try "folder redirection" to place the desktop in the users home folder. Then
> > when they save to the desktop it will be in the home folder. With roaming
> > profiles all the folders in the profile should be redirected to avoid the issue
> > of having a very large profile.
> >
> > On Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:59:02 -0700, outlook novice
> > <outlooknovice@newsgroup> wrote:
> >

> > >We have a new win server 2008. About 30 odd users in the domain. We would
> > >like to prevent users saving to desktop and force them to save to their
> > >network drive only. They have roaming profiles. We have tried to select the
> > >deny write option on a users desktop folder in their profile but to no avail.
> > >We have also tried a group policy to deny all users access to desktop but
> > >they can still still save and we get a message when they log off that their
> > >files can't be saved.
> > >
> > >Is it possible to maybe prevent the desktop being an option when saving
> > >items to the desktop or introduce an access denied message displayed to the
> > >user?

> > --
> > Dave Mills
> > There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
> >

Changing the error message would be very involved I would imagine. However,
to your point about where "folder redirection" writes the files to... when
folders are redirected the variable (%UserProfile% for instance) points to
the newly redirected location. So that what you see on the desktop when you
log in comes from the redirected place, and not the local hard drive. To see
what's actually local, use the full path - c:\documents and
settings\username - not the variable.

When your users save a Word doc and they receive the error message stated
below, look to see where exactly (what full path) are the saving to. Sounds
like some permissions might have been changed in the process here. Are any
of the policies still in place that you tried in the process? This could be
the problem here as well, specifically the one referencing
%allusersprofile%. Users only have read access to this folder.
Administrators will have write access to it.

hth,
Brooke



"outlook novice" <outlooknovice@newsgroup> wrote in message
news:30B52BD1-826C-4144-B917-CB5021AB2D67@newsgroup

> Actually i have managed to prevent users saving to desktop using your
> initial
> idea of folder re-direction and have hidden a file it it being re-directed
> to. For example when a user tries to save in word, they receive an error
> message "access denied, contact an administrator". It is possible to
> change
> this warning to say all files must be saved to your own home drive?
>
> "outlook novice" wrote:
>

>> we have tried folder redirection and found that the items saved on
>> desktop
>> appears both on the desktop and on their shared drive. Is there any other
>> way
>> to prevent this?
>>
>> Tried through group policy also using Computer Configuration / Windows
>> Settings / Security Settings / File System. Then add 2 files,
>>
>> %AllUsersProfile%\Desktop
>>
>> %UserProfile%\Desktop
>>
>> "DaveMills" wrote:
>>

>> > Try "folder redirection" to place the desktop in the users home folder.
>> > Then
>> > when they save to the desktop it will be in the home folder. With
>> > roaming
>> > profiles all the folders in the profile should be redirected to avoid
>> > the issue
>> > of having a very large profile.
>> >
>> > On Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:59:02 -0700, outlook novice
>> > <outlooknovice@newsgroup> wrote:
>> >
>> > >We have a new win server 2008. About 30 odd users in the domain. We
>> > >would
>> > >like to prevent users saving to desktop and force them to save to
>> > >their
>> > >network drive only. They have roaming profiles. We have tried to
>> > >select the
>> > >deny write option on a users desktop folder in their profile but to no
>> > >avail.
>> > >We have also tried a group policy to deny all users access to desktop
>> > >but
>> > >they can still still save and we get a message when they log off that
>> > >their
>> > >files can't be saved.
>> > >
>> > >Is it possible to maybe prevent the desktop being an option when
>> > >saving
>> > >items to the desktop or introduce an access denied message displayed
>> > >to the
>> > >user?
>> > --
>> > Dave Mills
>> > There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those
>> > that don't.
>> >