[THIN] Re: Activate Excel add-ins for all users
- From: "Braebaum, Neil" <Neil.Braebaum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 10:05:58 +0100
Rick
With you 100% on that. I've never been fully comfortable relying on the
shadow key, and / or install mode for propagating user hive changes.
Always seems to abstract a layer of clarity.
I very much prefer scripting and / or GPOs to populate such things. It's
more flexible, and IMO more easy to debug.
Neil
> -----Original Message-----
> From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rick Mack
> Sent: 02 October 2007 21:14
> To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [THIN] Re: Activate Excel add-ins for all users
>
> 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 <http://www.commander.com/>
>
>
> On 10/3/07, Raffensberger, Stephen D
> <sraffens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> <mailto: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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