Registry reset

[Chris Carroll]

I have an application that uses the Current User key for user specific
settings. when i reboot the server, the registry settings under the current
user key for all users are reset to the same as the default user.

windows 2000 sp3

anyone have any ideas?

thanks,
chris

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Does this happen after *every* reboot, or after a reboot which is
caused by the installation of a ServicePack or hotfix? If the
latter is the case, check:

297379 - Programs Can Revert to the Default Settings on Terminal
Server
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=297379
for a very good description of the cause of the problem, as well
as a workaround

813126 - Personal Settings for Users Are Incorrectly Reset to the
Defaults
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=813126
for a pre-SP4 hotfix

 

[Chris Carroll]

this happens on some reboots. the application is a custom in house which
doesn't update the user settings in the registry. just updates exe's and
dll's. sometimes it will reset users registry keys, sometimes it won't.

i'll check out the articles you suggested and see if they help.

Thanks for your reply,
Chris

 

[Sleurhutje]

What if a program writes custom data to HKCU, e.g. specific settings? This
isn't done in install mode... I have some king of similar problem with a
third party application that writes printer settings from a Word 2000/XP
macro to th eregistry for future use.

Jeroen

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Changes to HKCU should be saved in the specific users profile.
Does this application use the default Windows printer?
What *exactly* is your problem?

 

[Sleurhutje]

When a user logs on, the default printer is set by a Windows Scripting Host
5.6 loginscript. So far so good, all Windows application work perfectly on
the set default printer (and others when selected). Users can not change
their default printer because they don't have sufficient rights to do so.

But in Word 2000/XP is a macro that's custom made for creating official
documents. This macro does time registration, case numbering and much more.
It also makes it possible to print the document by using a special function
to outline the text available for the specific documents.

When this macro prints it uses some HKCU printer settings
(HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\Device) for
retrieving the default printer. If this key is set in the login script all
works fine, but if the default Windows printer is changed by the script,
this key gets an empty or incomplete value.
This key also changes when the server is rebooted or a networked printer is
changed (without changing the default printer).

Always thought (and with me also the software engineers of the third party)
that this key was user specific and changes are stored when a user logs off.
But this is not true on a Terminal Server. (On a domaincontroller with
roaming profiles it works fine however).

So that's our - read our customers - problem.



Jeroen