asked on

SRVCOMMENT information not displayed under Vista or 7

We are relying on the computer description information to easily retrieve some information about users (last name for instance) when browsing the Network Places and domains. We've been doing this for years under a NT then 2000, then 2003 domain. That information is held in the registry under that specific key
: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters\srvcomment

That information can also be changed under the Computer Name tab under System Properties in XP, Vista and 7.

So if we browse network places from a Vista or 7 PC, we cannot find a way to display that information. Any ideas?

tenaj-207

I'm running Vista and it shows up in my registry as you posted. Try renaming the PC and see if the comment shows up after the rename. Or use a script to write that registry entry in there, like this one.
Save this as a .reg then reference it in the users login script.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters]
"srvcomment"="UserName"

Maybe I'm missing the point here, how exactly are you retrieving information when you browse the network places?

fresnotek

ASKER

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. The registry key and its value are correct. It works when we use XP clients and browse network places. We can open up each domain and see a list of PCs on our network with their name AND the computer description showing their last name as it is what we decided to display for that field. That's the user-friendly part for us. We can easily see who's on the network by browsing each domain that way.

Now, under Vista and Seven that computer description info is not displayed anymore when you browse network places. It shows the computer name obviously, category, etc but not computer description. If I use an XP system I am fine like it was before. But since I have been testing out Vista and 7, I miss this feature and it's actually "bugging" me. I know, it's like a detail and not a deal breaker but I am curious to see if there is a way to "fix" this for my situation.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

tenaj-207

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

tenaj-207

LeeTutor,

Thanks again for your cleanup efforts.

The answer to this question really is that it's been a feature that's been removed. Ironically I just referenced this post a couple days ago here, https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/24523550/WS2008-view-computer-description-at-network-level-a-la-WS-2003-and-earlier.html. A guess this was a popular feature.

Anyways, I think it should stay.

TMWSIY

This feature has not really been removed; there is just not a view/shortcut to access it on 7. But if you still have a XP machine on the network you can create a shortcut to the view that contains the computer description and then copy the shortcut to your vista, 2008 or 7 machine and it works great! My guys here at work use it all the time since we have username and service tag in the computer description. Its a very helpful feature and I'm disappointed MS did not re-enable this in 7.

fresnotek

ASKER

NICE!!! Thanks!!! This is what I needed.

I think TMWSIY should get the credit for the help on this one!!

TMWSIY

fresnotek,
I'm not worried about the points I'm just glad I could help 8c)