Controlling Windows Look and Feel for all Users

Novell Cool Solutions: Feature
By Jared Jennings

Digg This - Slashdot This Posted: 27 Nov 2006

The Windows OS look and feel can be controlled by ntuser.dat, located in documents and settings\default user\ for all new users authenticating to a workstation.

I have created a viewlet with details about this process. The finished product can be put into a ZENworks OS image or even an addon image. This way you can have multiple looks and feels for different departments, but only one OS image.

Modifying the Default Profile

1. Launch regedit.
2. Select HKLM.
3. Select File.
4. Load HIVE.
5. Browse to ntuser.dat that you extracted.
6. Specify a temporary name for the hive being loaded.
7. Browse to hklm/
8. Make changes.
9. Unload HIVE.
10. Add the modified ntuser.dat to the addon image. This will overwrite the existing ntuser.dat file.
11. You are finished.
12. Find image explorer at sys\public\zenworks\imaging\imgexpl.exe
13. Create the required folder structure.
    1. Documents and Settings
    2. Default User
14. Add the ntuser.dat file to the folder under Default User.
15. Save the image.

You now can restore this simple addon image after the base OS image.

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