Domain Logon Scripts

How would you like, if your users see only a screen like the one below with your company name and logo on it while logging on? While they see the splash screen, you can connect shares, printers, apply user settings, perform maintenance and so on with very few script lines. Just follow the simple guide below to set it up!

How does it work?

Follow the Quick Guide below to set it up. You point your users' logon script to FastTrack Logon and when it is executed, it will do this on each client:

• Synchronize FSH.Exe and logon script files to Local Settings\Application Data\FastTrack in the users' non-roaming part of the profile.
• Execute your logon script from this client location.
• Associate the fsh extension to the profile copy of FSH.exe.

The first time each user logs on to a client, about 1 megabyte of data will be copied from the domain controller to the non-roaming part of the users profile. After that, copying will only happen when you change the files in the fshbin folder on your domain controller - anything you put in your fshbin directory on your domain controller will be synchronized to each client. There is no limitation as to what files and directories you put under fshbin on your domain controller. An Active Directory is not a requirement; it also works for domains without an AD.

The local copy of the files and the file association is per user, because this way you don't have to do anything else for clients to support FastTrack Scripting Host scripts in general in the users' context. There is no need for a per machine deployment and this does not require the user to be a local administrator. You can customize the client location of files, if you would like to place them somewhere else, more details on this in the Logon Script FAQ page.

Step 1: Setting up Logon Scripts in your domain - Quick Guide

First step is to see that it executes on your network and the best way is to try it without group policies to make sure you only assign it to a few users first. This is a safe procedure, as it does not interfere with your current logon scripts. Follow these simple steps to try it without group policies:

• Locate FTLogon.Zip in the installation directory. This would be default be "FastTrack Software\FastTrack Scripting Host" in your program files directory.
• Unpack the full unedited content of ftlogon.zip into the netlogon share on your a domain controller (\\%USERDOMAIN%\NETLOGON).
• Open the properties for any user in the domain or active directory you wish to test with. Type in FTLogon.exe in the "Login script" textbox under "Profile".
• Make sure the logon script for the user is not overruled by group policies.

That's it! Log into any workstation in the domain as the user you just modified the login script property for. The sample logon script should now show a splash screen saying "Welcome to the network" for 5 seconds. You are now ready to make your logon scripts. If you have problems executing the logon script on clients or you want to customize client locations, refer to our Logon Script FAQ.

Important note if you have Windows 7 and/or Vista clients: The first part of the logon script will run hidden by default under the "Welcome" screen. The way you know that it works on these clients is that after the explorer starts, the small trial splash screen is shown in the lower right corner for two seconds. You would probably like to unhide your logon script; refer to our Vista/7/2008 section on how to "unhide" it.

Step 2: Make logon scripts

Take a look at the fshbin folder on your netlogon share. In this directory there is a template logon script you can start with. There are two files that are executed by FastTrack Logon: Prelogon.fsh and Postlogon.fsh. From these scripts you can include other scripts you would like to execute.

PreLogon.fsh is executed before the explorer starts. You know that the user can not interfere with what you do here, so apart from connecting shares, this is a good place to make document backups and maybe perform installations.

PostLogon.fsh is executed after the explorer starts. So anything that is not a must to be completed before the user can start working, can be done here to prevent that the user has to wait. This could be connection of printers and synchronizing the computer clock.

If you are not yet familiar with FastTrack scripts, you can read our Getting Started Guide before making your logon scripts and how to install the script editor. For inspiration on content for logon scripts, you can also read our Logon Script Samples section.

Step 3: Assign Group policies (optional)

Once you are happy with your logon scripts, you must assign it to the masses. Unless you have only a few users in your domain, the logon script should be assigned with group polices. To do this, follow this procedure:

• Run the command gpmc.msc on your domain controller.
• Find and open your user's OU and create a new policy (or use an existing one).
• Windows 2003 Server: Open User Configuration->Windows Settings->Scripts (Logon/Logoff). Double click "Logon".
• Windows 2008 Server: Open User Configuration->Policies->Windows Settings->Scripts (Logon/Logoff). Double click "Logon".
• Click the add button and select the file \\%USERDOMAIN%\NETLOGON\FTLogon.exe as logon script name. You can optionally change
  %USERDOMAIN% to the actual dns name of your domain.

Logon to a client and test that the script is now executed.

Using your company logo

The prelogon.fsh script shows a splash screen by default. The Splash command can take an image file as the third parameter. If the image file is 128x128 or less, the icon will be replaced by your image file; png format is recommended, as it supports transparency. If the image is exactly 537x165 pixels, the whole background will be replaced by your skin file and the logo icon will be removed.

The easiest way to get your image file to the clients, is simply to put it into the fshbin folder on your netlogon share, as it automatically gets distributed to the clients and refer to that location, as shown below with an image file called Logo.png.

Splash Welcome to Rock America,[UserFullName],[UserAppDataDir]\FastTrack\Logo.png

Notes on startup, shutdown and logoff scripts

You can use FastTrack Logon for startup, shutdown and logoff scripts too, simply by copying the FastTrack Logon package to those directories on your domain controller with different PreLogon.fsh and PostLgon.fsh scripts. Startup and shutdown scripts can be used for machine maintenance on locked down clients. However, in most cases it is easier to just change the execution context in your logon script, because then you have user interaction and can show the user what is going on.

Notes on offline scripts

Offline logon scripts are not supported on Windows the platform, but we have made a free application to support this. Your domain enables you to execute scripts when computers are on the company LAN, but for portable computers, this is actually not enough, if you think about it. You need to control portable computers when they are not on the company LAN too. Whenever a computer changes IP address, a script is executed, which means that it is executed whenever the computer booted, resumed from standby or hibernation, connects to VPN, etc. This is especially relevant if your company has a proxy server, as the IE autodetection rarely works properly. Check out our SmartDock connectivity tool.

Notes on terminal services and Citrix

If you use using Terminal Server, you run the same logon script as you do on workstations. If you would like a different logon script on terminal services, you can put a construct like this in the beginning of the prelogon.fsh script to run a specific Terminal Server script:

If TerminalServer Then   Include TSLogonScript.fsh   Exit End If   ''...the rest of the regular logon script

In this example, you must make a script named TSLogonScript.fsh in the root of fshbin on your domain controller. In the postlogon.fsh you can put a similar construct like this in the first line:

If TerminalServer Then Exit

When you use Citrix, you can specify a specific logon script for the users. This means that you can make a copy of FastTrack logon and the configuration file specific to Citrix.