Systems Deployment

Another solution is to use your local administrator account to be used as a defualt profile. While sysprep erases the old defualt profile, your unattend file can copy the local admin (you mostly likely have sysprep auto log into this account) onto the default profile. This is how I setup all my windows 7 images. Default profile is great for other things not just desktop icons.

This is the line you need in your file.

<settings pass="specialize">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" .....
<CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>

Hi Damianb,

The icons you've mentioned are default icons that Windows shows for all users when a new profile is created. You can simply turn off all desktop icons by right clicking the desktop, click view then uncheck "show desktop icons". But this is a manual process and will remove all icons from the users desktop.

An option that would be more customizable on a per user basis would be to use registry files to remove the specific icons that you don't want to be visible.
Here's a link to a site that has already done the leg work for you http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/919-desktop-icons-add-remove.html

I haven't tried this myself and it might take a little trial and error to get it just right, but you could possibly add the remove icon registry hack to the "run once" registry key. Then when a user logs in the first time, those icons will be removed from the desktop yet any icons that are shown via group policy would still be displayed. Since these icons will only be removed from the desktop once, the user could add them back without fear of them disappearing again.

Hope this helps,
Dave

Hi DamianB,
All of these icons can also be customised via group policy, either through admin templates or as reg entries deployed centrally from central GPO.

Cheers

What method are you using for deploying Windows 7? That could be useful in offering more suggestions.

I use a batch file that makes changes to the registry which allows you to tailor your configuration exactly the way you want it. You can turn those shortcuts on/off in the Start Menu and there is an area in the registry that corresponds.

Another option is to create a custom WIM file that you are using as your base image to deploy Windows 7.  Remove these icons for user profiles.  Make further tweaks to the OS.  Capture a WIM of the computer.  Regardless of your deployment method.  You can use this WIM for your deployments.

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