[THIN] Re: Activate Excel add-ins for all users
- From: "Rick Mack" <ulrich.mack@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 06:13:41 +1000
Hi People,
I was obviously suffereing from a mental lapse. What I meant to say was:
The biggest problem with using the shadow key is that you have to manage it,
and short of automating updates to the shadow key AND making sure the
date/time timestamp on settings in the shadow key are consistent (RDT/SDT
utils), *it becomes a real contributor to inconsistency in your server
environment.*
regards,
Rick
--
Ulrich Mack
www.commander.com
On 10/3/07, Rick Mack <ulrich.mack@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Hi Stephen,
>
> This uses the shadow key (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows
> NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\Install\Software) to propagate updated
> settings from the admin user's profile (HKCU\Software) when in "install"
> mode (change user /install) to non-admin users as they log on. Provided the
> timestamp on the settings in the shadow key are newer than the user's
> settings, the shadow key settings will be written to the user's profile.
>
> It's actually a bit more complicated but that's essentially it.
>
> This works fine in an environment where you've only got a few servers, but
> is just plain bad strategy when you've got a lot of servers. The biggest
> problem with using the shadow key is that you have to manage it, and short
> of automating updates to the shadow key AND making sure the date/time
> timestamp on settings in the shadow key are consistent (RDT/SDT utils).
> Bring a new server online that hasn't got all the shadow values, or better
> yet different ones, and things start getting chaotic.
>
> While it's certainly possible to manage the shadow key, it starts creating
> problems when it propagates settings you don't want to go to all users. For
> example, what if you've got 4 or 5 different add-ins, for different groups
> of people?
>
> So what can you do?
>
> An Excel (or other office product, replace excel with outlook etc) add-in
> can get "activated in a couple of different ways.
>
> The first is via a per-user setting,
> HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins. Each addin has it's own subkey,
> and whether the addin is used or not is controlled by the loadbehavior
> value, where a value of 2=disabled, 3=enabled.
>
> The shadow key can obviously be used to propagate the sukey and values to
> all users, but you can also use scripting or a custom group policy, then
> make the add-in available or not for selected users.
>
> If you want to turn it on for everyone on a server, then you can do that
> by creating or copying the addin subkey to
> HKLM\SOftware\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins, with exactly the same values as
> the HKCU entry.
>
> That let's you manage what's happening, and not just depend on what is a
> sometimes useful, and many times not, outdated mechanism in the shadow key.
>
> The best thing to do with the shadow key is keep it empty. By all means
> use it to determine what settings should be propagated, but once you've
> worked out a better way to do that, delete the shadow key values.
>
> regards,
>
> Rick
>
> --
> Ulrich Mack
> www.commander.com
>
>
> On 10/3/07, Raffensberger, Stephen D <sraffens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >
> > 1. Log in as an admin.
> > 2. Change user /install.
> > 3. Launch Excel, activate the add-in, exit.
> > 4. Change user /execute.
> >
> >
> >
> > Steve Raffensberger
> > Sovereign Bank
> > Email: sraffens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> >
> >
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