Most IT teams work hard to make sure that client disk images include user profile settings (e.g., default screen resolution, desktop shortcuts, drive and printer mappings) appropriate to each group of employees. But deploying disk images with the appropriate user profiles isn't the end of the job. You might need to change these profiles later because of employee turnover or simply to satisfy evolving management preferences. For example, if management wants users to save documents by default to network home directories rather than to local hard disks, you must modify the registry on each user's desktop. And you can't define Microsoft Outlook messaging profile settings in disk images because you need to populate those profiles individually. Managing desktop settings can be tedious and time-consuming.
If you've migrated to Windows 2000 and Active Directory (AD), you can use Group Policy Objects (GPOs) to manage some desktop settings. But administrators in Windows NT shops or mixed environments typically manage desktop settings through batch files and logon scripts written in VBScript, Perl, or KiXtart. To manage users' Outlook messaging profiles, some IT departments use the Automatic Profile Generator (i.e., newprof.exe). This tool uses the Messaging API (MAPI) to populate the messaging profile. But the Automatic Profile Generator supports only the most basic configuration settings, and using one tool to manage messaging profiles and another for user profile settings can be a hassle.
If you use scripts and batch files to manage desktop settings, changing settings requires modifying the script, which can take quite a bit of time if you don't do much scripting. And because end users lack administrative privileges, you can't use scripts to perform tasks that require administrative permissions, such as setting the system clock. To manage user profiles efficiently, administrators need other alternatives. I look at three products that can help you manage desktop settings. Two of these products also manage Outlook messaging profiles.
Visual KIX 2.0
Simplified Networking's Visual KIX 2.0 makes scripting easy. This graphical KiXtart scripting tool lets you create scripts in a fraction of the time that you'd need to create them manually. Visual KIX also lets you quickly and easily modify a script's application rules, as Figure 1, page 44, shows. However, Visual KIX doesn't help you manage messaging profiles and supports only a limited set of desktop profile changes, such as changing icon sizes and wallpaper, bringing up a licensing screen, and mapping drives and printers.
You use Win2K Server Terminal Services to access the product, which runs on a domain controller (DC). At $495 for companies with as many as 450 clients per domain and $995 for companies with more than 450 clients per domain, Visual KIX is inexpensive and might be a good value for organizations that use many logon scripts for basic tasks. You'll need a separate product to manage messaging profiles, however, and Visual KIX can't perform tasks that require administrative privileges.
Full-Featured Offerings
AutoProf and ScriptLogic offer full-featured products that help you efficiently manage user profiles and messaging profiles. AutoProf initially designed Profile Maker as a messaging profile management tool; in Profile Maker 7.0, AutoProf has enhanced those capabilities and added desktop management features. In contrast, ScriptLogic Enterprise Edition 4.12 is based on KiXtart scripting technology, so this product's strength is in managing desktop settings. But ScriptLogic also includes messaging profile management capabilities that should satisfy most users. Although both products provide a GUI, Profile Maker uses a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in whereas ScriptLogic uses a proprietary management interface. Both products are priced per user, depending on the number of users. Profile Maker ranges from $5.85 (for 2500 or more users) to $7.90 (for fewer than 1000 users); ScriptLogic costs from $5 (for 10,000 or more users) to $9 (for as many as 500 users).
Profile Maker 7.0
Although Profile Maker's strength is in messaging profile management, it also provides a full-featured desktop-settings management capability. Profile Maker 7.0 uses MAPI and, according to the vendor, provides a broader range of functionality than Automatic Profile Generator. For example, AutoProf says that Profile Maker can add new mailboxes to the Microsoft Exchange service and can set the addressing search order. By running the client as a local system process, Profile Maker can even make user profile changes that typically require Administrator privileges.