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Question

Save user settings between mutiple computers?

Apr 17, 2015 2:59AM PDT

Hi,

At my university, the lab computes are set up to revert to a "default" every time they are shut down (usually 2-3 times a week). This means that every time I use any computer in the lab, all the settings and changes I've made revert to the lame ones that some university IT guy thought were a good idea. Essentaly everything saved on the local C: drive gets erased. Network drives act normally.

-Is there some way for me to save my changes and load my settings when I log on to another computer? I'm talking stuff from taskbar and start menu properties to desktop layout, to graphic settings.

-Is there a way I can save the settings I make within programs like Photoshop or internet browsers?

-What about keeping installed programs? For example, the "default" installed java isn't the current version, so it has to be updated after every restart.

Thanks for any tips.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
If these are at the university, I'd say you're stuck
Apr 17, 2015 3:13AM PDT

You bring this up with the IT staff and must be willing to accept what they say. I believe it's against forum policy for anyone to offer ways to circumvent that which has been set up by other owners than yourself. It might be possible to use a USB stick to copy profiles for some applications and restore them later but that may be more hassle than it's worth. That's something that would only stick if you had a unique account on a particular PC. If it's a generic account, you'll need to remember that your settings will also apply to the next person who uses the PC and those settings might not be to their liking. I'd suggest you not waste time with this...though it's not what you'll appreciate hearing.

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External files?
Apr 17, 2015 4:45AM PDT

I'm just asking if there's a way to save settings :/ Not trying to hack the system. A way to get them to some external drive, a file on the network?
Perhaps a set of files or a .dll that could load settings or commands from a thumb drive?

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You should still check with university IT
Apr 17, 2015 5:50AM PDT

You don't want to do anything that could get you banned from using these. As for putting some settings on a thumb drive and loading them onto a PC, the method would be different for every application. Some will use profiles, some the registry, etc. You'd still need to run some app from the PC to load the settings or copy/past profiles. Then you'd be on the honor system to undo what you'd changed. I do know of one thing that should be fairly harmless. If you use Firefox as a browser, you can export your bookmarks to html and copy the file to a USB flash drive. You can work from that bookmarks file without importing it into FF on a PC. It's a bit awkward but it does work. You still should make sure that what you do is OK with the owners of the computers.

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Re: settings
Apr 17, 2015 6:24AM PDT

If there is a way to automate the settings that you now do manually, nobody would notice that and I think it would be inside the rules.

So that means writing VB- and powershell-scripts and batchfiles to automate what you do every few days now. Saves a lot of time and errors, once it works.

Kees

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Answer
nope, no way
Apr 17, 2015 5:48AM PDT

the computers are being reset for security reasons. It prevent users from installing unauthorized programs and making changes that could affect others. If you are having issues, there is nothing we can do here. You need to contact the university it department.

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I wonder if
Apr 17, 2015 6:56AM PDT

booting from DVD and USB has been blocked too?

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Shutdown and restart can easily be blocked
Apr 17, 2015 10:05AM PDT

and I imagine, a savvy IT department has BIOS PW protected.