Customized preferences don't stick for multiple user accounts

rdwhitehill wrote on 5/11/2004, 4:44 PM
Hi all,
I work with students in a multimedia production classroom (14 PCs) all on a Windows network domain. Students have their own user login accounts.
I would like to do customized changes to VF in the Options/Preferences/Internal area. (Specifically, I want to enable the Trimmer features, speed control, and other advanced features.) I know how to do this, and lack knowledge about these features isn't the problem. But...
Changes made in this regard don't "stick" from one user to the other. If I make settings changes on a local-machine Admin account, the settings don't show up on the student accounts.
Now the students *can* indeed make the changes themselves on their own account logins; no problem.
What I'd like to do is make the changes *once* and have them apply to all subsequent users on a particular PC. Having a bunch of 13-year olds do this over and over on different PCs doesn't entirely inspire confidence in me...! <gg>
At this point, each student has to make the customizations on each machine that they log onto... remember we have 12 machines... ugh!
Can anyone tell me where these settings are stored? I've scoured Registry and other file areas on the HD, but can't seem to find where the settings changes are logged. Is there some way to make these changes available and permanent for all users after a one-time setup?
Help!!!!!! Thanks in advance!
Doug Whitehill

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 5/12/2004, 6:18 AM
Sounds ot me like individual logins are automatically reset by the network nightly -- which I think is a safety feature so that students don't screw up the classroom machines.

What happens if someone makes the settings on each computer while logged in as administrator?

rdwhitehill wrote on 5/12/2004, 6:44 AM
Hi,
Right you are! The login profiles are "blown away" upon restart by DelProf called up by a batch file in Startup. (I didn't want to make my original post any longer that it already was... <smile>).
I have made the changes using an account with admin rights... they stick, but only for my account. The student (restricted) accounts allow changes that stick for them, but each student has to make them on each and every machine that they log onto. Since I am desiring changes in the "Internal" Preferences area on 12 PCs and 2 additional notebooks, I'd sure like to not have the students "go there" each and every time they use SBMS for the first time!... <smile> We have upwards of 100 students potentially using these machines with SBMS. Whew!
Sounds like the settings are in a file somewhere in the user's profile folder...? Yes? No? I was *hoping* that they were in Registry, and I could change security rights to some key or keys for all users to be able to have full control on them.
But, if they are kept in a file in the user account's profile folder, then I'm sunk... unless... I can set this up in the All Users folder, I suppose.
What I need to know then is exactly what files are involved, *where* these settings are held, and, if I copy whatever is involved to All Users, that SBMS will look at All Users to get the settings details when it starts up and not the user's own profile folder settings.
I really appreciate the help here! Thanks once again!
Doug
rdwhitehill wrote on 5/12/2004, 6:47 AM
Sorry... I meant VideoFactory v2.0c in this situation. We have both in my building, and this lab in question uses VF v2.0c. I imagine that things operate the same in this regard though...
Doug
SonyTSW wrote on 5/12/2004, 6:54 AM
Doug,

I'm sending you a private email on how I think you can accomplish this.
rdwhitehill wrote on 5/19/2004, 3:13 PM
Hi Tracy,
I've implemented things as you suggested in your email to me. We're now able to do with our multiple login accounts as I desired.
Thanks! Sony's support here is just great! You've definitely proven yourself to me.
My best regards,
Doug Whitehill
Vegas - The Big Gamble wrote on 5/29/2004, 11:55 AM
Hmm.. just one thing.. this was resolved with a private email.. and all we can tell from reading this is that whatever was suggested by Sony worked!

I had the same question and was following the thread with interest - is there any reason we can't see the answer here?

Thanks guys

a.
Vegas - The Big Gamble wrote on 6/5/2004, 7:29 AM
I would also love to know how this was resolved
rdwhitehill wrote on 7/5/2004, 5:50 PM
Hi all,
Sorry for the delayed reply...
The solution that was suggested to me goes like this (my words, not Sony's). Warning: make any changes to Registry at your own risk. I am not responsible for anything that you do nor the results of your actions from here on!
1. Log on to an account with local admin priviledges
2. Make all settings/preferences as desired
3. In Regedit or Regedt32, write out a REG file from the appropriate Sony Hive in the HKey_Local_User area
4. Use this REG file in a startup script to append the settings into the user's settings at login
An alternative to this (not mentioned by anyone at Sony, incidentally) is to modify the user's container policy on the server-side of things with this REG file batch of stuff so that any user account in a particular container (Win 2000 Server) picks up the settings at logon.
Sorry folks, but I really don't want to go further nor do I want to offer more specifics, as I may give information that screws up someone's Registry settings or server details if misused or incorrectly implemented, and I don't want to be responsible for that. But anyway, that's the general "jist" of things.
But... in short, you can find the Settings/Preferences information in a hive key set in the current user's area of Registry... at least as far as W2K and XP are concerned. I couldn't find it at first because I was assuming that it was in the Local Machine area of Registry, when in fact the settings are in the Current User Registry area.
Hope this helps some.
Doug W.
rdwhitehill wrote on 7/5/2004, 5:52 PM
Sorry... I need to get my nomenclature straight:
... HKEY_Current_User, not "local" user...