Rachel's questions

Our users connect to a Windows Server 2008 box using Terminal Services, and one user appears to have triggered a bug that moved their Task Bar to the top of the screen, even though Active Directory settings don't allow users to manipulate their task bar.

I can't click and drag the task bar, and can't access it's Properties via the right-click menu.

Is there a way to put the task bar back on the bottom of the screen using the registry or a batch script?

I know I could just have him re-create his profile, or I could temporarily disable the AD policy, however neither of those options are ideal.

We have a Windows Server 2008 machine running Terminal Services. When users login, a custom program is launched and resides in the system tray that gives them some customized hotkeys for our company.

When we need to update this program, we have to close all copies of the program from all sessions before the new version will actually take effect (more info here). I can end the process for all sessions easily with Taskkill, but I want to know if there's an easy way to restart the process for all sessions afterwards.

I do have access to the administrator account, but I do not have access to any other user passwords.

Is it possible to start a program from command line for another logged in user?

We have a Windows Server 2008 using Terminal Services. When users login, an executable on a network share starts up which contains some hotkeys and macros for various tasks they do.

Whenever I update the executable, I have to close all copies of the program in Task Manager for every single user before the new version of the executable will get launched. If I don't, launching the executable will open the old version, not the new version.

Is there a more efficient way to get Windows to open the new version of the executable instead of the old one?

Going through Task Manager and hitting End Task on every single session is extremely tedious, and it stops everyone's macros from working until they figure out they need to manually restart the program.

Our users are constantly managing to turn sticky keys on and then call tech support because their keys are bring up windows instead of typing letters.

Is there a way to disable StickyKeys in Group Policy? I tried disabling it on the server itself, but the problem still occurs so I think it must be something set at the user-profile level.

We have an application hosted on a network drive that starts up whenever any user in our network logs in. Users can login from individual PCs, or from one of 4 terminal servers.

I'd like to update that application with a new .exe file, however can't because it is currently in use. It's locked even during hours we're closed because users typically lock their computers when they leave for the day instead of shutting them down.

Is there a way to force the application to be unlocked so I can replace it?

I've tried using Unlocker but it says no locking handle found. I've also tried simply renaming the file which has worked in the past for some files, but in this case it tells me the file is in use and cannot be renamed.

Our Terminal Servers has two Group Policies in place: one that includes disabling the command prompt, and another that runs a batch script to startup a program upon login.

But the startup program never gets launched. I've tried running it manually and am getting an error that "The command prompt has been disabled by your administrator", so I am guessing the command prompt restriction is getting applied before the login script gets run, but I'm not sure what I can do about this. (The program starts up fine if I login with a user that doesn't have the command prompt restriction)

Is there a way to run a .bat login script to startup a program on login, while still keeping the command prompt disabled?

The login script is simply start \\networkshare\folder\someprogram.exe, and our terminal servers are Windows 2003 and 2008.

We recently setup one of our users with a brand new Windows 7 computer, however she is unable to delete certain files. With some testing, I found I cannot move, rename, or view properties of these files either.

When trying to delete the file, it just sits at the "Preparing to recycle" popup, however the "from" section says "Discovering items..."

Clicking "More Details" on the popup shows me that it can't find the file name or where it's recycling from:

Other notes...

• All the affected files are .pdf files that get created via a scanner. Other pdf files are fine.

• Opening the files works fine. I can open the file, Save As a new file, and delete the new one just fine

• Trying to delete the file via command prompt just sits there

• Rebooting the computer will let me manipulate the files like normal, however this user is responsible for scanning hundreds of documents a day and I'd rather not have to tell her to reboot her computer to delete files.

• The user is part of the administrator group on the computer

• The Owner of the affected files is the user

• attrib of files is just A

I'm moving some folders to an external storage drive and replacing them with a Shortcut, however the shortcut is listed in with the Files, not the Folders. It also doesn't show up in the folder Tree View that's on the left side of Windows Explorer.

Is there a way to make Windows Explorer treat a Shortcut Folder the same way it would a regular Folder?

Our uses randomly get a solid blue screen (desktop background colored blue, not BSOD) when logging into our 2008 Terminal Server. There is no TaskBar, no desktop icons, CTRL+ALT+Delete doesn't work, and no mouse events occur. The only way to end the session is to restart their terminal, or for someone to login as an admin and end their session.

I have discovered that logging in as an admin and ending the process net.exe that is running under that user's profile will end the blue screen and load the users session.

What is net.exe, and why is it randomly giving my users a solid blue screen when they login?

Here's what I know:

• Server is Windows Server 2008
• Server is a virtual server
• Disabled our group policy on our test account and the same thing still happens
• Happens about 1 in every 4 logins
• Nothing out of ordinary gets logged in the event viewer

We have a Windows Server 2008 running Terminal Services. Users typically use the Drop Down menu at the top of the dialog to select a location to open/save their file. The problem is that by default the DropDown expands the first level item under Desktop, and that item happens to be Network, so the entire application freezes for a minute or two (sometimes they get timeout errors, other times it will load after a minute or two)

Is there a way to NOT show my Network places in the Open/Save dialog of Office products?

• Server is Windows Server 2010 R2
• Office program is Office 2003 Professional
• The path is Desktop\Network, even though the Network icon doesn't show up on their desktop
• Active Directory polices are in place to restrict what the users can access. On an admin account which can access everything, the top item in the Desktop list is Computer (not Network), so there is no delay in loading the drop down

We have a Virtualized Terminal Server running Windows Server 2008. When the admin user logs in, everything is fine. When anyone else logs in, their desktop and start menu is blank (they have the taskbar, start button, and quick launch links though). If I go into Windows Explorer, I can see icons in their desktop folder (although the icon image is missing and it is just displaying the generic icon), but can't run any of them.

If I login with a user that is part of the Administrator group in Active directory, I get the same behavior except I can launch the programs found in the Desktop Folder of Windows Explorer. I cannot drag these items out onto the desktop though - The cursor doesn't allow me to drop them. From Task Manager I can see that explorer.exe and dwm.exe are both running.

The Authenticated Users and Interactive groups are both under the Users group, along with our network's Domain Users group.

Does anyone know why this is happening and how I can fix it?

Also, not sure if it's related but about 1 in every 3 logins just hangs at a completely blank blue screen (no start button, taskbar, or quick launch buttons) and needs to be disconnected / reset by an admin.

Edit

I just noticed that the desktop itself doesn't even respond to click events. It's almost like the entire desktop is missing. At first I thought it didn't respond to right-click events because of an AD policy, but then I noticed if you open the Start Menu and click the desktop, the start menu doesn't shut like it should

We have a Windows Server 2003 terminal server, and our IT department does not want to disable Automatic Updates. The problem is, when an update gets applied that requires a reboot, users get a popup about it and can hit Restart Now to reboot the server.

Is there a way to keep Automatic Updates on, but not give regular users the Restart popup after an update?

We have one developer machine which crashes all applications whenever it is unlocked after being locked for a while (15-30min or more I think)

The machine will start throwing an generic XXX has encountered an error and needs to close error for every running process, including the standard services seen in task manager such as ccApp, svcHost, wuauclt, etc.

My suspicion is it is memory related since that machine only has 4GB of memory and usually multiple high-memory applications are open such as Project, Visio, Blend, Visual Studio, etc.

The machine is running XP SP3.

We have a user who suddenly started getting the following error when trying to open some web apps using window.open from within an embedded web browser in our software

The script uses javascript's window.open command, and it works absolutely fine if I copy/paste the URL directly into IE. It only fails when run from within our application. I'm fairly sure it's a security setting of some kind... I've googled the error and tried all the suggestions I can find about IE settings but with no luck. The only thing I haven't tried is disabling Protected Mode because that setting doesn't seem to exist on XP.

Her PC Windows XP running IE8, and plenty of other people at the office have similar setups which run fine. I've gotten the error to go away a few times by reinstalling IE8, but it always comes back a few days later. I think its a software update of some kind, but I don't see any software updates in Add/Remove programs.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can make this go away?