Multiple Profile Admin Config 1

[jrjr2u]

Hello!
My question has to do with multiple users on an XP Pro box. We have a program that needs to be configured for each user. The trouble is they work in 3 different shifts and takes a lot of coordination to get the task done. We just moved the DB to a different server and another move is due to happen next year.

It seems that the machine stores each users profile configuration settings locally rather than in the program file folder. I have tried the program installed locally and also on the server with a different instance for each user to no avail.

Where is this information stored on the client machine and can I edit it? My thought was to log on as Admin and edit each users file path statements for DB connectivity, and some minor other settings.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks a lot!!

 

[shrubble]

This may or may not be your answer:

Beginning somewhere around Windows NT/2000, software developers were given the ability to freely write small amounts of data the system registry. Although I think you could have probably always done this to some degree, there was a point when Microsoft introduced an API specifically for this purpose, and it caught on.

The type of data written usually includes such things as default file paths and application layouts. It's the reason why, when you do something like change the window size of your chat client and then close it, it's still that size when you open it again. But enough rambling...

If this is the case with your application (and it may or may not be), there are a couple of ways to approach this:

If you look on the "Advanced" tab of your system properties (get there by right-clicking "my computer" and hitting "properties", or through the "system" icon in the control panel), there is a button called "Environment Variables". Click that, and look through the listing of those variables, and see if your database path is in there. If it is, you can edit it to what you need through that same dialog. Be careful when altering though, the system is finicky about syntax.

The other way is to directly edit the registry with regedit (start -> run -> "regedit"). Using the search feature with the application name may produce the entries that set your path. They can also be edited directly. Be careful, again, messing with the registry can be bad voodoo.

Hope this helps!


deletion mistake
no I can't recover that
you didn't save it

-Shrubble

http://www.ishrubble.com

 

[jrjr2u]

I ran regedit and found 8 instances of the path statement on my personal (single user XP) machine that has the same program installed.There were some other references to the server name in there without the full path name too. Monday I will search the machine in question. With this line of reasoning, I would think that I have to edit all of the full path statements found in the registry... After a backup of course!
thoughts?


Correction..... the multiple user machine in question has Win 2000 as its OS. Sorry....

 

[shrubble]

Could be. Unfortunately, there is no "standard way" to use this kinda stuff, so the way one company implements it could be totally different from the way another does.

I would start off slowly, and edit a couple just to see if it has the effect you're looking for, although it sounds about right. Be careful though, it's easy to take it too far when you're messing with the reg!

Good luck

deletion mistake
no I can't recover that
you didn't save it

-Shrubble

http://www.ishrubble.com

 

[jrjr2u]

Thank you very much for your responses! I will certainly take this course of action and see where it leads.

Nice job shrubble!