Question for IT Geeks

[Angie]

Sorry to start a thread just for this, but I'm trying to figure out if I'm imagining that this is possible or not.

I'm 99% sure that you can set up Windows to run an exported registry key at the time of login. The reason I want to do this is that our company stores most information under HKey_Current_User, and a university that uses our software has students that will log into several different machines, all using the same user profile. Their IT department is trying to tell me that you can't automatically get it to run at login.

I know you can set a program to run at startup by setting up an item at [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] - for example, I could put in "Test" with a location of "c:\[program directory]\Text.exe" if there was an executable. Can I do the same thing for a reg key? c:\test.reg, for example?

[1100011CS]

Not sure about the registry key but if nothing else you could write a $cript to set the key at login.

[Angie]

I was pretty sure that you could do a s*****, too - just put a batch file in the Startup directory, right? That shouldn't be hard at all.

[TykeClone]

That's right.

I think that you can also set up this kind of thing with a group policy in the active directory as well.

[Angie]

That's right.

I think that you can also set up this kind of thing with a group policy in the active directory as well.

I was thinking that it should be able to be done for a group, too - they're going to have all kinds of faculty and staff who need to run this, as well, so that also seems like the safest move.

Thanks, you guys!!

[HandSanitizer]

Ditto... I was going to say use Group Policy or a batch file within your network logon ****** or something.

[Angie]

You guys are all awesome. My area of expertise is not so much networking, so I really appreciate the help.

[HandSanitizer]

Good Luck! Just remember Group Policy is a very powerful item. Its easy to jack up something so test a bunch before you deploy. I am sure you already know that but I had to put my 2 cents in.
Not that I have experience messing things up or anything.

[Angie]

Good Luck! Just remember Group Policy is a very powerful. Its easy to jack up something so test before you deploy. Not that I have experience messing things up or anything.

I just sent an e-mail to their IT department subtly suggesting that they just do the batch file, since I would feel a lot more comfortable helping them set that up than totally jacking up the Group Policy of an entire department of a university... Plus, I'm not really trusting their department to set it up, either, if they're saying this can't be done!

[TykeClone]

I just sent an e-mail to their IT department subtly suggesting that they just do the batch file, since I would feel a lot more comfortable helping them set that up than totally jacking up the Group Policy of an entire department of a university... Plus, I'm not really trusting their department to set it up, either, if they're saying this can't be done!

You know, if it's the University of Iowa...

[Angie]

You know, if it's the University of Iowa...

Closer to Lake Erie. Jon may be hitting EIU sometime this summer, though - I'll give him instructions.

[TykeClone]

Closer to Lake Erie. Jon may be hitting EIU sometime this summer, though - I'll give him instructions.

two words for the policy: Homepage and ******

[HandSanitizer]

You know, if it's the University of Iowa...

Now that is funny.

[Angie]

two words for the policy: Homepage and ******

That is genius (although I'm a little afraid of the banner ads we're going to get by me quoting this)!!

[superdorf]

You can't just "run" a registry key. If you want to load it at startup or login you could use the regedit command.

This is what you want to use:
Registration Info Editor (REGEDIT) Command-Line Switches

regedit /s "c:\filename.reg"

Will load a file into the registry.