Setting XP To Look Like 2000

[galchanto]

Hi all,

We have recently installed some XP Clients in one of our Training Centres but most of the clients are still Windows 2000. These clients are logging onto a 2000 domain controller. The users who are using these PC's are not very computer literate. They are used to using the 2000 PC's. I know that we can change the the look of XP to mimic the 'Classic' look of 2000 but how do I make this a global change so that it is reflected for all users who log onto this machine??

Thanks in Advance

Galchanto

[Coffee]

Hi all,

We have recently installed some XP Clients in one of our Training Centres but most of the clients are still Windows 2000. These clients are logging onto a 2000 domain controller. The users who are using these PC's are not very computer literate. They are used to using the 2000 PC's. I know that we can change the the look of XP to mimic the 'Classic' look of 2000 but how do I make this a global change so that it is reflected for all users who log onto this machine??

Thanks in Advance

Galchanto

It's not actually that hard to do. All you need is to...

Goto "Start",
goto "Run",
type "gpedit.msc"

This loads the group policy settings for admins & users. Now you need go to... "Local Computer Policy\User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Explorer" and look through the list for the appropriate setting and find "Turn on Classic Shell". I think this should probably be it, unless of course you find anything else of interest.


Yours,
Coffee.

[galchanto]

Coffee, I tried that on one of the machines but they all still come up with the XP style on their desktop... This does not seem to change the desktop to Classic...

Galchanto

[Coffee]

Coffee, I tried that on one of the machines but they all still come up with the XP style on their desktop... This does not seem to change the desktop to Classic...

Galchanto

If you dont want them to be run at all, you can disable the themes service from the services manager.

[Richard]

Control panel
>Display
>>Appearance
>>>Windows and Buttons

Change from Windows XP style to Windows classic style

[P5C5H5F5]

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[from support.microsoft.com]

SUMMARY
This step-by-step article describes how to make your Microsoft Windows XP desktop look like the desktops in the following operating systems:
Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me)
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
Microsoft Windows 2000

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=294309#Task2
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[Coffee]

Richard & P5C5H5F5, I just have a quick query... as ive not tried to do your suggestions myself im not sure if they work but will the changes suggested make changes for all different users who logon to that system?

[galchanto]

Thanks for the replies but it still does not answer my original question. I know how to do this for individual users but I need these changes to be applicable to any user who might sign onto this machine as it is in a training centre and the users change frequently...

[galchanto]

This problem is still something I can't seem to sort.. Anyone got any new ideas??

The issue is getting the classic look for all users of the system...

[Coffee]

Without too much knowledge of whats goin on then it's really hard to understand your problem. The suggestions above should certainly have sorted out wheather there is to be a theme run or not, therefore if there's nothing changing? or happening at all? then it would be safe to say there's a lil problem which you yourself may need to read on. My suggestion is if you want to manage the Desktop Theme for different users, go read a book, or search M$'s website and look for "themes service" or "GPO themes".

I'm wondering myself, if you are meaning that you want every users account to have different settings from one another for the desktop theme? If this is the case then it's just simply down to...

Control panel \ Display \ Appearance

then a listbox with... "Windows and Buttons" and choose between "Windows Classic Style" or "Windows XP Style". So long as each account has their properties saved on exit or logoff then all should be fine, if not then do some more reading.

If you want desktop themes to be stopped all together then you can disable the actual "Themes" service from the services manager itself, by going to... "Start \ Administrative Tools \ Services".

[galchanto]

I'm not sure if I am explaining correctly what the problem that I have is..

We have recently upgraded some machines in a company training centre to windows XP. We will have numerous different users using different machines within this centre. They will log onto the systems with their own logon specific to the user. When a user logs on I can change the appearance of the OS to look like Windows 2000 as this is the interface they are used to seeing.

The problem I have is that when a new user logs on the appearance reverts back to Windows XP as a default for a newly created profile on the machine in question. I then have to change the settings again for the new user.

I want to know if there is a setting that will allow one change but will be the default setting for all users including any new users signing onto this machine.

I can fix it by giving a generic log on to the PCs in Question but this does not suit me to do this...

Does this make it any clearer? I have searched the Micro$oft sites and can find nothing on this issue but I can't believe that it's not possible to do...

[phishhead]

are you using roaming profiles for the users? that should carry along their desktop settings.

[cash_site]

You might have to give some information about your network setup in the training center...

What server OS are you using?
Is a domain used?
Can you configure Group Policies on the server?
Do users log on to Local Computer accounts or Domain profiles?
Are the profiles roaming or stored locally?

You should be able to do Coffee first suggestion (edit GPolicy) on the server, and then this should propagate to all users' profiles.

Or you may be able to develop a windows script that makes the appropiate changes to your themes in the SYS_LOGON.bat script, located on the server.