Classic Shell: Forum

Hi Guys,

Firstly kudos to classic shell - what a fantastic little program. I have been using it on windows 8 machines and have loved it.

I am setting up a brand new Remote Desktop Server with Windows 2012 and plan on using it for all the users.

Is there a way I can create a settings for all non-admin users and enforce it on them so that they can't change it?

I want the settings to be different for admin users as things such as administrative tools etc etc needs to be given to admin users.

Is it also possible to do different settings based on different security groups?

e.g MS Office users get MS Office as a menu item - but if a user is not part of MS Office security group they don't get the menu item.

Appreciate your help.

Thanks!

You can set the settings for individual users in their respective registry hives and disable the settings editor. You can also lock access to the Settings registry key so they can't change the settings using regedit.
Look in the Administrative Settings section in the documentation.

There are 2 Start Menu folders on the system: %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu and %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu. The former is the per-user menu folder and the latter is the All Users Start Menu folder. If you put program shortcuts in the former, they will appear only for the currently logged in user's account. If you put them in the All Users Start Menu, they will show up for all accounts. If you want MS Office to appear only for certain users but not all, make sure its shortcuts folder is in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs for each user that you want it to show up for.

However, note that if you move shortcuts across folders, when you uninstall a program, they may not get automatically cleaned up. You will have to delete them manually.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Thanks Ivo for the quick reply.

I will check the documentations

Gaurav thank you too. Yes I figured the 2 start menus. However I wanted Classic Shell to manage it.

I will build the server - then test and then come back with response.

Because this is a new server the non-admin users have never logged in - is this bit important?

Once you add the correct settings to HKLM as the help file mentions, users who have never logged in before will also get those settings and won't be able to change them.

The per-user and All users Start Menu folders are file system folders managed by Windows and depending on where installers create shortcuts, they go to either of those folders or to both. There isn't any support for user groups in this model yet although for a future version it's a nice idea for custom items of CSM to be shown only a particular user group e.g. Everyone, Remote Desktop users, Admins, Users etc.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

But I can still have start menu with all items for admin users and customised lock down start menu for NON admin users - am I right?

ok so i have deployed the server. And customised the settings for Non Admin users and copied it to HKLM. However in doing so the administrator has the same restrictions on the start menu.

How can I have default settings of classic shell for the Administrator users and customised settings for non admin users?

The HKLM settings apply to everybody.
You have to set the settings for each individual user and disable the settings UI in HKCU. If you really want to lock it down also take away write access to the Settings key.

Hi Ivo,

Thanks for the quick reply.

What is the registry key per user that needs to be imported into?

I can perhaps run a login script to import to the users registry?

HKCU will just be for the current user. Normal users don't have access to registry etc etc.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER is the tab for settings per user.

The key is HKCU\Software\IvoSoft\ClassicStartMenu\Settings.
I don't know how you can ensure particular contents for all users. I've heard from admins that it is possible.

To give different menu (registry) settings for groups of users, e.g.:

users
administrators

I would suggest using group policy preferences with item level targeting against groups. These should be within a group policy that applies to 'authenticated users' (i.e. the default)

Find the registry keys you need to set, some of these may be common between the groups of users. For the common settings just don't use any item level targeting. For the users, item level target against an AD group that does not contain the administrator accounts - do not use 'authenticated users' or 'domain users', because these will contain all user accounts, including administrators.

For the administrator specific settings, you can likely use the domain admin group or an equivalent group you may have set up.

If the keys are HKCU also set the GPP setting per item to 'run as user account/credentials' (or similar to this, can't quite recall right now)

ok so I managed to do this via group policy.

Created a login script for different users groups and imported settings using regedit /s

Thanks for this fantastic tool. Is there a way to disable the right click on the Start button? I disabled settings etc but users when they right click still shows the help button. I would like this disabled for the non admin users.

You can disable the help by deleting the help file.

Perfect! All done.

Good work Ivo

Classic Shell 4.0.4 introduces Group Policy support for its own settings. The file, C:\Program Files\Classic Shell\PolicyDefinitions.zip includes the policy definitions. If you have an Active Directory domain, extract the files to %logonserver%\sysvol\%userdnsdomain%\policies\PolicyDefinitions\ or whatever your Group Policy Central Store is. For Local Group Policy, extract them to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions folder.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.