How can I deploy a single .reg file so that it can be stored to a whole bunch of different USER accounts on a non-domain terminal server?

Question

There is a software tweak that I have to make for all users on a terminal server system, that is not available to me as a group policy option, but which exists as a key in regedit under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE.

If I was willing to write some code (making this no longer a pure IT question) I suppose I could somehow reverse engineer which HKEY_USERS keys are for which users that need the fix.

To save me from logging in as 10 users on a terminal server and just double clicking a .reg file, is there some tool I could use, that will "deploy a registry change to HKEY_CURRENT_USERS for a set of users on a single machine"?

Do you have an Active Directory thats support Group Policy Preferences? It would be dead simple if you do. — jscott, Mar 26 '13 at 17:50
Unfortunately it's a standalone non-domain terminal server cloud box. — Warren P, Mar 26 '13 at 17:51

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 26 '13 at 18:05

2

If the server is Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2102 you can create a local Non-Administrators group policy object that will apply to all non-administrators logging on to the server. You should be able to deploy the REG file in a logon script.

answered Mar 26 '13 at 18:05

joeqwerty

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The logon script sounds like a good idea. – Warren P Mar 26 '13 at 18:20

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 26 '13 at 17:52

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you can via GPO have the machines in question run a script that pushes the staged regkey you want to those machines.

answered Mar 26 '13 at 17:52

DRO

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Can you use GPO even on a non-domain system? – Warren P Mar 26 '13 at 18:03
Yes you can.... – joeqwerty Mar 26 '13 at 18:06
yes you can, even if you dont want to use gpo, you can place the batch file in the ALL Users startup, on those boxes and have it run and install the staged reg key – DRO Mar 26 '13 at 18:09
That was the technically simplest route. I used `reg import regfile.reg` in the Registry RUN key in HKLM – Warren P Mar 26 '13 at 23:02

score 1 · Answer 3 · 2013-03-26T18:50:20.177

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create a key (String Value) in HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and point it to a batch file that says:

@ECHO OFF
IF EXIST %userprofile%\reg_ran exit
C:\directoryAllCanAccess\regfile.REG
echo "It Ran" >> %userprofile%\reg_ran

Or just point HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce directly to the C:\directory_all_can_access\REG file, I think that would work too.

edited Mar 26 '13 at 18:50

answered Mar 26 '13 at 18:07

That helps for multiple computers. I am using multiple ACCOUNTS on a single terminal server computer. – Warren P Mar 26 '13 at 18:20
See my edited solution – Mar 26 '13 at 18:39
How am I getting no love here? I am the only one who gave an immediately usable example that should work for the purpose. :( – Mar 26 '13 at 20:05
I ended up doing a "reg import myreg.reg" directly from the RUN registry key. – Warren P Mar 26 '13 at 23:01

How can I deploy a single .reg file so that it can be stored to a whole bunch of different USER accounts on a non-domain terminal server?

3 Answers3