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Group Policy fun

Morning,

I know my way around Group Policy Fairly well.....but i am stumped on this

If I enforce windows classic start menu on xp clients
Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar\Force classic Start Menu (E)

and also configure a classic theme,
Administrative Templates\Control Panel\Display\Desktop Themes\Load a specific visual style file or force Windows Classic (E) and left blank for classic

--==it kills the quick launch bar==-- !

now at the same time i prvent access to changing these settings
Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar\Prevent changes to Taskbar and Start Menu Settings (E)

so the user cannot change it....is there a way or a workaround to enforce the quick launch bar to appear?

Thanks

Jay

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

oBdA

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Jay_Jay70

ASKER

Just on hols at the moment, will be back in Aus in a few days and will test that - Thanks Mate

oBdA

Forgot to mention: export that key when only the "Show Desktop" button is there. The actual shortcuts displayed there are in %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch, but the names of the shortcuts are in the binary data in the registry as well, for whatever reason.

Jay_Jay70

ASKER

if the show desktop button isn't there, do i scrap the above export? when i enable the policies - the quick launch bar is not enabled at all

oBdA

You can leave the "Show Desktop" button there, that's a default which should be present for every user.
I got this to work some time ago with a (local) logon script from a policy; an easier way to test this which should work, too, is to open the task manager, kill the Explorer process, run the regedit command from Task Manager's Run menu, then start Explorer again. The QL settings are read from the registry when Explorer starts and written back when it ends, and is not accessed inbetween, so any changes you make while Explorer is running will be overwritten again.

Jay_Jay70

ASKER

I'll have a play when i get in the office tomorrow morning.....i find it odd that there isn't a policy that simply says "enable quicklaunch" might see if i can make a custom .ADM file to do this for me as a the moment there is simply nothing there! I will try importing those values though and let you know

Jay_Jay70

ASKER

hmmm when i added that reg file as a logon script, it didnt take affect.....hmmm

after much playing i guess i will just have to live with the fact that by default, the quick launch isnt enabled and there isnt a way via GPO direct to enable it.....what a bucket...!

Thanks for your help oBdA, no odubt with some more tinkering we could have got it working, but I am trying to avoid the use of scripts for things like this as well, due to the fact that there is a restructure taking place and if i can keep everything GPO based i will be a happy man.....

Jay_Jay70

ASKER

No doubt your solution would work if we were willing to go scripting

Plenty of further research shows this as part of ms group policy that is sorely missed......and as yet has not been introduced

Thanks for your time