Software Deployment

If Active Setup or Advertised shortcut is not an option.Can you outline what circumstances - other than you not knowing how - would cause those options to be unavailable? Client ignorance?

ORIGINAL: VBScab

If Active Setup or Advertised shortcut is not an option.Can you outline what circumstances - other than you not knowing how - would cause those options would be unavailable? Client ignorance?

Precisely.

Mobile clients + source unavailability.
+First logins that last 20 minutes.
+Waiting for advertised shortcut repair to finish.
+Removal of HKCU add-ins for Office products.

+Mobile clients + source unavailability
Alter your deployment to test for laptop (easily done with WMI) and copy and execute source locally

+First logins that last 20 minutes.
User profile stuff isn't going to add appreciably to this time.

+Waiting for advertised shortcut repair to finish.
Your users don't want their applications to work properly after they get broken. Fair enough...

+Removal of HKCU add-ins for Office products.
Huh? How often does that occur? Given the life-cycle of Office in clients I've worked for, I'd say once every, what, 3 years?

To answer your question, you're going to have to script it. Walk through the user profiles folder - remembering to account for the different paths for XP and Vista/7 - find the profile, load it up in REG.EXE, then make the change. Will your users be happy with an ugly DOS box appearing while they log in? How will you deal with the idiot user who closes that box? Do you think this will take any shorter time than doing it properly?

Extended logins could be the result of failing GPOs, poor DNS resolution, Domain Controller availability, Firewall/Anti-Virus issues, VPN solution problems, failed services, incorrect device drivers, login script issues, wireless and wired networks both enabled at the same time, failing laptop battery, etc.... You need to focus on what is happening the ine Event logs and eliminate the problems.

An easy trick to see if its anything network related is to set the machine to be wired only (disable the wireless). Reboot the machine and at the Ctrl+Alt+Del screen, unplug the network cable and then initiate a login. That will give you an idea if its network, GPO or login script related.

If the reason for not using self-healing advertised shortcuts is "slow". Then check out this post... it covers self-healing and how to speed it up. http://itninja.com/question/how-do-you-roll-out-new-machines?4146&mpage=1&key=幬

If you functionally cannot use advertised shortcuts (cause the app doesn't have a shortcut), then you can link self-healing to a file association.

Uninstall per-user reg entries and files for all profiles on the PC. IMHO way more trouble then its worth, but as VBscab is right vbs, you could try simplifying it by copying the vbs to the Startup folder on each existing profile (assuming users can even run vbs - rights)