Question

script to create a shortcut to lock computer

Asked by: andrewm123

I am trying to create a script that will automatically create a shortcut to lock the computer. I would like the script to create the shortcut everythime the user logs on.

This is what I have that sort of works

Dim objShell, strPath
Dim objShortcut
Set objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
strPath = objShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")

Set objShortcut = objShell.CreateShortcut(strPath & "\Lock Computer.lnk")
With objShortcut
        .Targetpath = "%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation"
        '''other options can be entered here
        .Save
End With

Set objShortcut = Nothing
Set objShell = Nothing


It will create a shortcut on the users desktop, but the problem is that the shortcut path reads
"%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation"

when it need to read
%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

If I try and remove the quotes in the script i get an error.

any help would be appreciated.
PS. It doesn't have to be written in vbs, I just need it to work as a windows 2003 domain logon script

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2007-09-08 at 13:24:34ID22815457
Tags

lock

,

script

,

computer

,

shortcut

Topics

Scripting Languages

,

Windows 2003 Server

,

Computer Servers

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
8

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Reference for Rundll32.exe and user32.dll functions
    Hello, I'm very new so please bear with me. I recently found a tip for locking the screen (win2k) by making a shortcut that has the following command: %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation Is there a list of all the commands that can be run this wa...
  2. RUNDLL32.EXE
    After running HijackThis both rundll32.exe and RUNDLL32.EXE are active are they the same? If not which should be deleted?
  3. Using Wscript.Shell on a PocketPC
    I have an application which saves information to a text file. I have used the line: Set objShell= CreateObject("WScript.Shell") This works on my desktop, but the line creates an error when run on a PocketPc. The error I receive is "ActiveX can't create ob...
  4. Reference "Wscript.Shell"
    Hi, If I do not want to use late binding for "Wscript.Shell"...What reference do I need to add in my VB6 project? Set m_objEventViewer = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell") Thanks Ian
  5. ActiveX component can't create object: 'WScript.Shell'
    This is the file that the problem occurs in.. prefastnew.dsm: Sub PrefastNew() 'DESCRIPTION: Reads the compilation options from the active project and compiles the active file with Prefast using these options Dim PathString If Application.Documents.Count > 0 then Pat...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: tigermattPosted on 2007-09-08 at 14:02:43ID: 19854539

I see your problem, and have a (sort of) solution. How about create the shortcut beforehand, then use a vbs to copy if from the netlogon directory to the desktop?

Create the Lock Computer shortcut and place it in \\<your domain name>\NETLOGON (can also be accessed via \\<servername>\NETLOGON
For the purposes of this script, the shortcut should be called Lock Computer, but the name can be changed in the script.

Copy and paste the following script and save it as a vbs file.

Option Explicit
' Copy shortcut file
' Lock Computer shortcut
' Logon script
' VBS format

dim objfso,objnetwork,objshell
dim userdomain, netlogonpath, desktoppath
Set objfso = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objnetwork = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network")
Set objshell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

userdomain = objnetwork.UserDomain
netlogonpath = "\\" & userdomain & "\NETLOGON\Lock Computer.lnk"
desktoppath = objshell.SpecialFolders("Desktop") & "\"

if objfso.FileExists(netlogonpath) Then
      objfso.CopyFile netlogonpath,desktoppath
end if


The script will automatically get the user's domain name, so you don't need to set that. Assuming you only have one active directory domain it shouldn't be a problem, otherwise just put it in the NETLOGON folder for all the domains the script will run for.

Then assign it as a logon script in a GPO as per usual. I suggest you test it first just by running the script manually though!

If you want top change the shortcut name, you'll need to update this line:

netlogonpath = "\\" & userdomain & "\NETLOGON\Lock Computer.lnk"

Change Lock Computer.lnk to <new shortcut name>.lnk and obviously make sure the shortcut matches the name exactly.

Let me know if you have any issues

tigermatt

 

by: skca54Posted on 2007-09-08 at 14:03:36ID: 19854542

Try using double quotes i.e. ""%windir%......LockWorkStation""

 

by: tigermattPosted on 2007-09-08 at 14:06:55ID: 19854548

skca54,

Double quotes doesn't seem to work in this instance... :-(

Something I forgot to point out with my script above - the advantage is you can easily adjust the shortcut in the NETLOGON share, i.e. change the icon that depicts it etc. and it will update at next user logon!

tigermatt

 

by: mastallamaPosted on 2007-09-08 at 16:25:52ID: 19854798

You could always teach them the START+L shortcut.  :)

Hold down the START button on the keyboard and press L.  There's actually a lot of other shortcuts with the START key too!

 

by: andrewm123Posted on 2007-09-09 at 07:46:37ID: 19856916

Both are good sugestions. I am going to give them the option of   Start+l,   Ctrl+Alt+L(assigned to the shortcut), and the option of clicking on the shortcut itself. That script did work like a charm to copy that short cut right to the desktop.

Thanks Everyone :)

 

by: tigermattPosted on 2007-09-09 at 07:55:28ID: 19856947

Excellent, glad to know we could be of assistance!

 

by: mastallamaPosted on 2007-09-09 at 15:52:25ID: 19858180

Hey!  Glad I could help :)

 

by: GMSMRMPosted on 2008-06-12 at 07:02:29ID: 21769552

I used the code above for creating links on the desktop but could not get it to work. I quickly added a message to the desktop in the code to make sure the file is being accessed during logon and it works. There are no error during logon either. I double checked my network path and filename and it looks rith to me. What do you think could be wrong?

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...