myITforum.com Community Forum myITforum.com Community Forum

Home  Forums  Blogs  Live Support chat  Search Articles  Wiki  FAQ  Email Lists  Register  Login  My Profile  Inbox  Address Book  My Subscription  My Forums 

Photo Gallery  Member List  Search  Calendars  FAQ  Ticket List  Log Out

All Forums RSS Feed Subscription:


  


How to distribute Shortcuts to Users Desktops

 
View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest
  Printable Version
All Forums >> [Management Products] >> System Center Products >> System Center Configuration Manager >> How to distribute Shortcuts to Users Desktops Page: [1]
Login
Message << Older Topic   Newer Topic >>
How to distribute Shortcuts to Users Desktops - 9/14/2008 8:17:05 AM   
sanensen

 

Posts: 2
Score: 0
Joined: 9/14/2008
Status: offline 		We're evaluating SCCM07. Our current distribution tool makes it very easy for us to distribute shotcuts like URL's and Excel startup sheets to our users by placing shortcuts in a folder on the desktop. I'm not able to find any easy way of distributing and directing shortcuts to users desktops in SCCM, so hopefully someone has a good suggestion?

Newbee to SCCM, Stein
Post #: 1
RE: How to distribute Shortcuts to Users Desktops - 9/14/2008 10:44:31 AM  1 votes
brpo

 

Posts: 35
Score: 1
Joined: 8/11/2006
Status: offline 		Hi
I used novell Zenworks in the past where this feature was 'integrated' into the product, but you can get more or less the same results via scripting in Sccm.
I needed to deploy about 40 shortcuts in the start menu of the users, those shortcuts change regularly (the target is updated and version numbers in the shortcut name must be present and change with the revisions, new shortcuts are added, others must be removed). I ended up using a robocopy command to 'sync' a network folder containing the shortcuts with a subfolder in the user's start menu.
Thanks to this, i can add, remove and change shortcuts as needed in the network folder, then run the sync and shortcuts are propagated to the clients.
(I can even say that it is easier and quicker to use than the zenworks menus)
hope it helps


(in reply to sanensen)
Post #: 2
RE: How to distribute Shortcuts to Users Desktops - 9/14/2008 10:55:18 AM  1 votes
skissinger


Posts: 2293
Score: 145
Joined: 9/13/2001
From: Sherry Kissinger
Status: offline 		Basically, if you have a method, external to ConfigMgr, that works to drop shortcuts without user interaction to a location on a client, ConfigMgr can deliver it.  Methods that I can think of would be .bat, .cmd, .vbs, a compiled .exe (i.e., from SMS installer), or a .msi you created (appdeploy.com just released a first version of a free msi repackager; I've downloaded it but haven't installed it in the lab yet.  I might do that today...).  Or of course purchased solutions, like Acresso's Installshield/Adminstudio, or Wise Package Studio.

Someone once explained the software distribution piece of this product succintly to me this way:  ConfigMgr is the delivery van.  It'll deliver the package--but it's your job to pack up the box and address it correctly so it'll be delivered safely.

I'm a vbscript person, so I've always scripted shortcut creation; but I believe one of the more popular ways is to use SMS Installer (which was released for SMS 2.0, but us old timers still use it for Administrative Scripting under ConfigMgr, like creating shortcuts).  There's a book by Rod Trent about SMS Installer.  The book can sometimes be difficult to find though--it's been out of print for a while.

_____________________________

mofmaster@smsexpert.com (version 2007) | http://www.smsexpert.com | http://www.sccmexpert.com
My Blog
Microsoft MVP - ConfigMgr

(in reply to sanensen)
Post #: 3
RE: How to distribute Shortcuts to Users Desktops - 9/14/2008 1:53:50 PM  1 votes
chiners_68

 

Posts: 221
Score: 3
Joined: 10/31/2007
Status: offline 		Ive used AutoIT to create a script (to exe) file for copying & removing adobe shortcuts without an issue. once you have a working script just deploy the exe as you would a software package & it will do what you want.

(in reply to skissinger)
Post #: 4
RE: How to distribute Shortcuts to Users Desktops - 9/14/2008 9:56:21 PM  1 votes
rbennett806


Posts: 885
Score: 18
Joined: 6/14/2006
Status: offline 		For whatever it's worth, here's some sample VBScript code on copying a shortcut to the desktop...

Option Explicit
Dim objWshShell, objFSO, strScriptFileDirectory, strAllUsersDesktopPath
Set objWshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
strScriptFileDirectory = objFSO.GetParentFolderName(wscript.ScriptFullName)

'On Error Resume Next

strAllUsersDesktopPath = objWshShell.RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Common Desktop")

If objFSO.FileExists (strScriptFileDirectory & "\ShortcutName.lnk") Then
   objFSO.CopyFile (strScriptFileDirectory & "\ShortcutName.lnk"), (strAllUsersDesktopPath & "\ShortcutName.lnk"), True
End If

(in reply to chiners_68)
Post #: 5
RE: How to distribute Shortcuts to Users Desktops - 9/15/2008 6:17:01 AM  1 votes
jquirk822


Posts: 189
Score: 12
Joined: 2/20/2003
Status: offline 		If you're looking for something slightly more sophisticated than copying a folder from a netowrk share, etc. I've used the following approach using collection variables with some success...

Create a ConfigMgr package with a program "SHORTGEN ApplicationA", "SHORTGEN ApplicationB" etc. which runs a vbscript similar to the one Rick detailed above. You want it to accept four parameters from the command line to specify location fo shortcut (All USers Desktop) path to object (C:\Program Files\AppA\AppA.exe), command line parameters and working directory. Obviously the last two are optional.

Now, I group shortcuts into two classes, global and departmental.

For each Global shortcut, create a task sequence variable on the All Systems collection named "SCGlobal001" with a value of SMS00001A:Shortgen ApplicationA

For each departmental shortcut, create a task sequence variable on the department collection named "SCDept001" with a value of SMS00001A:Shortgen ApplicationB

Now create a task sequence. Name it "Create Shortcuts" and add just two tasks. Both of which use the Install Software task. Select the "Install Multiple Applications" option and specify a base variable of SCGLOBAL for the global apps and SCDEPT for the departmental apps.

Advertise this task sequence to all workstations and professional systems and when it runs it'll ennumerate all of the variables and create the shortcuts. You can run it at every logon if you wish, then to give everyone a shortcut to a new app is just a single collection variable entry and a logon event.
       

(in reply to rbennett806)
Post #: 6
RE: How to distribute Shortcuts to Users Desktops - 9/15/2008 8:07:44 PM   
mhudson

 

Posts: 559
Score: 12
Joined: 4/1/2007
From: College Station, TX
Status: offline 		One of techs created a vbscript that will creat a shortcut in place
http://sms-hints-tricks.blogspot.com/2008/08/deploy-shortcut.html



_____________________________

Matthew Hudson MCTS,MVP-ConfigMgr
http://sms-hints-tricks.blogspot.com/
http://www.sccm-tools.com

(in reply to jquirk822)
Post #: 7
RE: How to distribute Shortcuts to Users Desktops - 9/16/2008 6:34:04 AM   
sanensen

 

Posts: 2
Score: 0
Joined: 9/14/2008
Status: offline 		Thanks a lot for all suggestions.

This has helped me to understand what tasks SCCM wa build to do, and what has to be solved by other means.

Best regards, Stein

(in reply to mhudson)
Post #: 8
Page:   [1]
All Forums >> [Management Products] >> System Center Products >> System Center Configuration Manager >> How to distribute Shortcuts to Users Desktops Page: [1]
Jump to:





New Messages No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages Locked w/o New Messages
 Post New Thread
 Reply to Message
 Post New Poll
 Submit Vote
 Delete My Own Post
 Delete My Own Thread
 Rate Posts



  
Forum Software © ASPPlayground.NET Advanced Edition 2.4.5 ANSI

0.266