desktop security (W2K)

[netware]

We restrict our user desktops to no images on the desktop. The users are
tired of looking at our standard blank screen. They have found if they
bring a jpeg file up in Internet explorer and right click then selecting the
wallpaper option, and low and behold they have a picture on thier screen.
They do not have rights to change the bakcground screens, but this is
appearantly by-passing the restrictions in thier policies by putting the
picture on top of the desktop. When they logout and back in our policy
changes the screen back to our standard, but they just change it daily. Our
administration feels very strongly against any deviation in the screens,
however we can not take away Internet explorer and we can not remove the
ability to work with jpeg files. Since our policy seems to only effect them
briefly after login, where do we go?? Is there possibly a way to enable the
NAL as thier desktop and stop them from minimizing or closing it?? Or is
there a registry hack we can use to stop them from wallpapering with this
photos?? We have looked at numerous options and come up short so far.
Anyone out there an expert on locking these crafty, critters down?? Thank
you for any ideas!!

[jdharm]

I have had success with adding the following entry:

[H_C_U\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Po licies\ActiveDesktop]
"NoChangingWallPaper"=dword:00000001

However, it took some experimentation to get it to work. I typed everything exactly as I saw it in various webpages and they didn't work. The things I had to make sure of were that there was no space in ActiveDesktop and that the D was capitalized, and that the "P" in NoChangingWallPaper was capitalized. Maybe it was just an accident that it worked when it did, but it didn't work till I had done these things. It greyed out the "Set as Wallpaper" option in the IE context menu.

Josh

"Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps."

[willypaycheck]

Why don't you just not worry so much or tell your administration to give a little in their restrictions. Coming from experience if you start locking stuff out you just build up animosity towards the hierarchy and that is not good. What is the big deal anyway with putting a simple picture up on your desktop? I have never understood why management wants to restrict in such a facist way. It is ludicrous in my opinion and I loathe anybody and all who practice that. Just lighten up a little and try to think of your employees and giving a little back. Willy Paycheck

[Jujutsuka]

IMHO, part of the reason an admin might not want users to change wallpaper is because if you give most users an inch, they take a mile. What I mean by that is that the second you let them put a pic of their kitty cat on their desktop, they'll go online and download the most complex and graphics intensive wallpaper they can find because it "looks cool". When they used to do that at my company, the fact that we have old computers (200mhz Pentium for the most part) and we run some pretty heavy duty apps made the systems more likely to crash while trying to refresh all those graphics. If users want to see a pic of the family, have them put it on their desk, not their desktop.