Remove IE8 Shortcut From Start menu

[xarden]

Hi guys,

In our Win7 image we have 2-3 browsers installed. IE8 & FF, and Chrome if requested.
So to keep things tidy, I've got a folder called browsers in the All Users start menu, and dumped the shortcuts into there.

However, after sysprep, IE8 recreates its shortcuts (IE & IE64bit) in the Users start>programs folder.

I dont want it to do this.

There are only 2 local accounts, 'administrator' and 'default'
I've removed the shortcuts from the both of those profiles, so it shouldnt be getting picked up from either of there.

Am I missing something?
How do I prevent it from recreating those shortcuts?
...
On a similar note, but outside this scope, its also happening with our ZenWorks shortcuts. These too have been moved from the above profiles and into a subfolder 'utilities', but after sysprep its back in both the programs and utilities folders.
Not sure if its related to the IE problem, but its the same nonetheless.

Cheers,

 

[roncerr]

What is "sysprep"? If you mean after boot up, try start/run msconfig and look at the startup tab. There is info there as to what starts up at boot and where it starts from. You could initially uncheck all items in the "startup" tab just to see if that cures the problem. If it does then try to guess which is the culprit.

 

[xarden]

Sysprep is a tool that strips the OS of any and all hardware ID's, so that you can move that harddrive, or take an image of it, and use it in another machine and windows will still work. Its used for creating a master image of windows, then deploying that to a large number of PC's in a corporate, or educational evironment. We have about 6000 here.

Almost forgot about msconfig...
Nothing in there that was useful to this problem, though.

 

[roncerr]

Perhaps Microsoft allows sysprep to be used but only under the condition that certain parts of Windows are preserved. Why not just find and fix the shortcut problem after sysprep (possibly with the help of msconfig) and then add any additional customizations followed by the duplication. (Maybe that's not allowed either but it seems to me most venders manage to customize and then duplicate.)

 

[Barman58]

This could be related to the hidden default user which is referenced when creating a user first run, (Preparing your desktop ... Prompt). check your image for items under "users\default" and "users\default user" in the applicable "appdata\roaming\start" tree area..

This "user" may be useful in setting what any new user will have available should they be created after your initial two

All these areas are hidden by default

Have not worked with this on win7 installs but it should follow the accepted practice.

If not you may need to use a GPO or distributed script to clean-up post install

 

[xarden]

Thanks for the suggestion Nigel,
Plan A:
Went through the default user profile, and moved the all the contents of startmenu into the 'all users' start menu which is buried in c:\programdata.
Did the same for the admin account too, all except the admin tools.
I'l be doing the build and imaging tonight, so will find out on monday if it works.

Plan B:
Script a cleanup tool, and run it during the final phase of setup
Plan C:
Script a cleanup tool, and run it by GPO at machine level (Before login)
Plan D:
Script a cleanup tool, and run it by GPO at a User level (Post login)
Plan E:
Leave it.

 

[Barman58]

Thanks for the suggestion Nigel,
Plan A:
Went through the default user profile, and moved the all the contents of startmenu into the 'all users' start menu which is buried in c:\programdata.
Did the same for the admin account too, all except the admin tools.
I'l be doing the build and imaging tonight, so will find out on monday if it works.

Plan B:
Script a cleanup tool, and run it during the final phase of setup
Plan C:
Script a cleanup tool, and run it by GPO at machine level (Before login)
Plan D:
Script a cleanup tool, and run it by GPO at a User level (Post login)
Plan E:
Leave it.

I wonder how many project reports actually show "Plan E" as the original choice when it gets to the final draft

Hopefully you'll never get to that stage here - looks like you have a good A - D plan

Good luck

 

[xarden]

Bit of testing done yesterday, looks like they replicate at a user level.
So I'l be going with my option D, to run a script at logon.

Furthermore, another issue I found were the pinned items on the startmenu and taskbar were not appearing.
They were present in the C:\Users\...\QuickLaunch\User Pinned\StartMenu in both User and Default profiles, but they just weren't showing up.
A remedy for this was, in the same cleanup script, to remove the links from those folders, and invoke the verbs 'Pin to Start Men&u' and 'Pin to Tas&kBar' on the target items instead.
The taskbar one doesn't work but start menu does. I don't know why just yet...

 

[sharpharp]

xarden, Did you manage to get a script working to remove the Internet Explorer (no add-ins) item from being created for every user? If so, any chance of you listing it here?

Cheers,
sharpy

 

[xarden]

Hi Sharpy,
Its the remove shortcut script is basically simple. Its only a .cmd file that runs the del command to delete the items.
SF wont let me upload the .cmd but the code itself is:

del /F /Q "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Media Player.lnk"
del /F /Q "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Internet Explorer.lnk"
del /F /Q "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Internet Explorer (64-bit).lnk"

As you can see, the WMP is in all users, so I get the error 'Access Denied' when running from a domain user.
You will just need to add/replace the file path from the above and point it to the startmenu link.

As for the pin to start menu script, its also rather simple. Full script attached (pin.vbs). Partial script:

Set objShell = createobject("Shell.application")
Set objFolder = objShell.Namespace("C:\IT\Shortcuts\")

REM INTERNET EXPLORER -------------------------------------------------------------
set objFolderItem = objFolder.ParseName("Internet Explorer.lnk")
for Each objVerb in objFolderItem.Verbs
	'wscript.echo objVerb
	if objVerb.name = "Pin to Start Men&u" Then objVerb.DoIt
	if objVerb.name = "Pin to Tas&kBar" then objVerb.DoIt
next

The shortcuts themselves are in the C:\IT\Shortcuts folder.

 

[Lasy B]

When they had next appeared I'd have just set their Properties To "Hide".
IE8 or The System doesn't give a monkeys if you can see 'em or not. Just so long as they are there!!

 

[xarden]

Thanks for your suggestion, Lasy B.
Whereabouts are these properties set?

 

[Lasy B]

Right-click the shortcut, click on Properties at the bottom, on the General tab tick the H.idden box, click Apply, Click OK.
I do it all the time with others whose shortcuts I've moved and they keep recreating them where they want 'em to be.

 

[xarden]

That one, of course.

attrib +h "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Media Player.lnk"

still produces the access denied when running via script. Doing it the manual way as you described works fine.

 

[sharpharp]

i'm getting the same access denied lark...

If deleting thru windows explorer, works fine.
But using vb script, comes up with access denied...

ANy ideas?