Forced log off - IE intranet homepage at startup

[Guest]

Hello
I have recently been tasked with making sure that employees visit our
intranet site on a more frequent basis. HR is upset that users are not
visting the iste for corporateupdates. Though I disagree with the solution, I
have been asked to implement the following using GPO's.
IE should launch at startup with our intranet site as the homepage, this
should always launch with this site at logon. Users should be able to change
their homepage if they like, but always get our site upon logon. Thus
reverting back if they change their homepage.
Additionally, management would like all users to be logged of their machines
at a given time in the evening. This will assist in forcig IE to luanch each
day with the intranet site. Is it possible to use winexit to force the log
off?
I have an idea of where I would like to apply my GPO's in my AD structure,
but I am unclear on how to configure the GPO to accomplish these tasks.
Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,

Mark Clark

 

[Herb Martin]

Hello
I have recently been tasked with making sure that employees visit our
intranet site on a more frequent basis. HR is upset that users are not
visting the iste for corporateupdates.

Though I disagree with the solution, I
have been asked to implement the following using GPO's.
IE should launch at startup with our intranet site as the homepage, this
should always launch with this site at logon.

Users should be able to change
their homepage if they like, but always get our site upon logon. Thus
reverting back if they change their homepage.

Why not just a shortcut to it in the Startup Group -- you
can certainly force this by various means using a GPO.

Additionally, management would like all users to be logged of their machines
at a given time in the evening. This will assist in forcig IE to luanch each
day with the intranet site. Is it possible to use winexit to force the log
off?

What a stupid method. You need to explain things
to them better.

As ugly as it would be, you could run a SCHEDULED
task and irritated the users for less.

I have an idea of where I would like to apply my GPO's in my AD structure,

but I am unclear on how to configure the GPO to accomplish these tasks.

That is not necessarily a bad thing -- tell them it is
impratical to implement as stated and try one or two
of the ideas above.

 

[Guest]

Herb,

If I chose to use winexit, how would I setup this up in GPO to ensure that
all users receive? I read that WINEXIT can prompt the user before logoff to
ensure that unsaved data is not lost.

Additionally, another peer suggested maybe trying to use secedit
/refreshpolicy /force (logoff if wanted) or /sync which I think give the
option to reboot/logoff and/or a task. Is this possible and how would I
setup as a GPO for our users? I guess this could very well ensure that each
time the user would get the homepage each day when they open IE. I am not
familiar with this type of stuff. Could you provide some insight?

I agree that this is a bad idea, but what can I do other than make my
thought known. They feel it is a must.

Thanks again,

Mark

 

[Herb Martin]

Herb,

If I chose to use winexit, how would I setup this up in GPO to ensure that
all users receive? I read that WINEXIT can prompt the user before logoff to
ensure that unsaved data is not lost.

You can run virtually anything by starting it or
scheduling it from a Logon script.

I really dislike the whole idea. Why not just
schedule the popup of the web page?

Additionally, another peer suggested maybe trying to use secedit
/refreshpolicy /force (logoff if wanted) or /sync which I think give the
option to reboot/logoff and/or a task.

All of these are ugly solutions to a problem that
is not well defined by your management.

Is this possible and how would I
setup as a GPO for our users? I guess this could very well ensure that each
time the user would get the homepage each day when they open IE. I am not
familiar with this type of stuff. Could you provide some insight?

You could even show the web page periodically with a batch
file.

I agree that this is a bad idea, but what can I do other than make my
thought known. They feel it is a must.

Well, if we don't teach you how to do something
bad like this you can honestly tell them it doesn't
work that way.