Pushing "mapped drives" at Login

Is it possible for our 2003 DC to setup "mapped drives" in Explorer/My Computer of our AD Users when they login?

 

A little google suggest got me a working .vbs script to do what I'm after (tested/verified)

All I need to know now is where to place this mapdrv.vbs script on the Server (2003) so it runs when any User of the AD logs in to the Domain.

Any suggestions?

 

Nevermind.....got it figured out and running at Login.

 

Well done for finding the solution. I take it you've added the script as user logon script. Here are some references to check.

Creating a logon script

How To Assign a Logon Script to a Profile for a Local User

 

Hi Reggie,

The .vbs works great! I have even customized it for specific users that need certain mapped drives residing on different servers within the VPN. I just give the script a unique name such as jammapdrv.vbs and leave all the different variations in the sysvol/scripts dir. Point their Profile to it and away she goes!

 

Alternatively to this script or maybe if you thinking about complex solution you can check out desktop management utilities. For example, in our 250 XP desktops and 2003 DC environment we use Desktop Authority from Scriptlogic. Drive, printer mappings, folder redirection, deploy of software and service packs, security and reporting - it's only only several things that this utility performs.

 

Thanks for the info Scot72. Looks like they have quite a few products too consolidate Admin duties.

Kinda spendy though for our 12 mil gross revenue Co.

 

I work for a small company too, so like you smigen work on a tight budget. So here are some comments based on my experience:

1. You can do a vast number of things with scripts. In particular monitor applications and sending reports. Therefore, time spent learning scripting is time well spent. I've greatly reduced my work load by automating reports. For example I have a script that each morning checks through yesterday's e-mail server logs for errors and e-mails me the results. I check the e-mail each morning and therefore am easily able to keep on top of e-mail problems. With these sorts of reports, I usually know about network problems before my users spot a problem.

2. There are plenty of applications out there that can help you. Some of them are expensive - some amazingly so. However the expense may be worthwhile. for example:

a. you need to address a problem urgently and don't have the time to develop your own script/solution

b. you could create a solution, but the cost for your time to develop the solution far exceeds the purchase cost of the software. (note this is only important if you have other work to do instead of creating the solution).

Therefore, even if you can write your own scripts/application to carry out network management tasks, there are still good reasons why you will want to buy in solutions.

3. There are some excellent freeware and shareware tools out there that are worth investigating. Tools like Blat, Ethereal, TightVNC, Kiwi Syslog, LogInventory and Didyma greatly help me get my job done more easily.

4. Don't forget to check out Microsoft who have many excellent free tools available to ease the life of a system admin and also help with scripting.

In summary:
If you run a network/server, scripting opens up a huge range of tools that you would be foolish to turn your back on. You can do a lot with Batch scripting, but VBScript is much more flexible and powerful.

However, there are still good reasons to use commercial products.

Think of scripting as an addition to your toolbox, rather than a replacement.

If you are on a tight budget, have a look at what is to offer in the open source, shareware arena.

Don't forget the excellent tools and help with scripting available at microsoft.com