[Unattended] installations for multiple users

[William Faulk]

I've found that setting up the Default User profile works better for
multiuser systems than any other method, like the All Users directory,
etc. However, many, if not most, software installers don't seem to deal
with the Default User profile properly.

When doing a Windows install by hand, I usually log in as a dummy user,
perform various configuration settings, and then use the User Profiles
control panel to copy the profile I just made to the Default User.
That method obviously doesn't work for an Unattended installation.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for dealing with the Default User
under Unattended, including doing something else altogether in order to
solve that problem?

-Bitt Faulk

[Ben Cohen]

We customize the Default User registry hive in code in our environment -- eg we've a script like this:

:: make Thunderbird the default mail client on start menu
todo.pl "reg add HKLM\mnt_default\Software\Clients\mail /ve /f /d \"Mozilla Thunderbird\""
todo.pl "reg add HKLM\Software\Clients\mail /ve /f /d \"Mozilla Thunderbird\""

:: make Firefox the default internet browser on start menu
todo.pl "reg add HKLM\mnt_default\Software\Clients\StartMenuInternet /ve /f /d \"FIREFOX.EXE\""
todo.pl "reg add HKLM\Software\Clients\StartMenuInternet /ve /f /d \"FIREFOX.EXE\""

:: mount the default user registry hive
todo.pl "reg load HKLM\mnt_default \"%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\..\Default User\NTUSER.DAT\""

It can be a pain to figure out what changes to make to the registry -- but you only have to figure that stuff out once.

Ben

Post by William Faulk
I've found that setting up the Default User profile works better for
multiuser systems than any other method, like the All Users directory,
etc. However, many, if not most, software installers don't seem to deal
with the Default User profile properly.
When doing a Windows install by hand, I usually log in as a dummy user,
perform various configuration settings, and then use the User Profiles
control panel to copy the profile I just made to the Default User.
That method obviously doesn't work for an Unattended installation.
Does anyone have any tips or tricks for dealing with the Default User
under Unattended, including doing something else altogether in order to
solve that problem?
-Bitt Faulk
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Ben Cohen
Programmer/Analyst (STS)
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
***@ucsd.edu

[Juanjo Pablos]

Post by Ben Cohen
:: make Thunderbird the default mail client on start menu
todo.pl "reg add HKLM\mnt_default\Software\Clients\mail /ve /f /d \"Mozilla Thunderbird\""
todo.pl "reg add HKLM\Software\Clients\mail /ve /f /d \"Mozilla Thunderbird\""
:: make Firefox the default internet browser on start menu
todo.pl "reg add HKLM\mnt_default\Software\Clients\StartMenuInternet /ve /f /d \"FIREFOX.EXE\""
todo.pl "reg add HKLM\Software\Clients\StartMenuInternet /ve /f /d \"FIREFOX.EXE\""
:: mount the default user registry hive
todo.pl "reg load HKLM\mnt_default \"%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\..\Default User\NTUSER.DAT\""
It can be a pain to figure out what changes to make to the registry -- but you only have to figure that stuff out once.

Nice!
would be nice to add those here?:
https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/unattended/wiki/Scripts