Normal.dot Nightmares from Hell

[Olster]

We have 2 Servers running Win2K SP2 and on a standalone Network.
1 Server is the Domain Controller,SQL and File/Print storing the company templates and normal.dot.
2.Server is a Citrix Server with Office XP SP2 and that is all.

Last week we upgraded both Servers to Win2K SP3 and since then normal.dot and Word will just not play the game. There is a group policy set in Active Directory to point the Users to the normal.dot in company templates folder. The permissions on this normal.dot are read & execute. The Group Policy is also set to not prompt the user to save the normal.dot changes.
Some users can open Word and some can't. Others can open the same template but when a few try to access the same document the last couple trying just have Word hung on their workstations until someone with it already open closes the document and then the hung session opens the document up immediately. All other applications work fine and I have created the normal.dot again twice. If I log on as an Administrator I can use this fine no problems but then I don't receive the Group Policy so that is why it works. Checked out MS KB Q241763 and Q291352.

By the time this is over I will have aged 10 years.<grin>

 

[Dreamboat]

I'm going to be flat-out opinionated here. As usual. LOL

Why are you forcing people to share normal.dot? Do you know that you are hindering those users who are good at Word from being most productive? People who know how to use Word to its utmost won't be able to save/change their toolbars, autotext, macros, etc.

Hmmm...when I open Word, it creates a copy of normal.dot (~normal.dot) where my regular one is stored. And doesn't that mean I'd need write rights?

Can those same people open OTHER files in the same place?

Does Word work okay if you set normal.dot on the C drive? I'll bet it does and it has strictly to do with permissions.

But if you're taking normal.dot away from your users, I shouldn't be helping you anyway. Hee hee.

LOL

Anne Troy

http://www.TheOfficeExperts.com

Word and Excel Macros
Coming soon: wX

 

[Olster]

Anne, the reason we don't let users have their own normal.dot is that the line of business we do dictates strict document control and therefore we only have to make changes to one normal.dot file. Helps when there are 400 users.
Don't forget a Sysadmin will try to make anything on their system as easy to maintain as possible.<grin>

Correct if we set a policy that tells Word to look in their &quot;%userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates\Normal.dot&quot;
..... they can use Word to their hearts content.

Can't seem to find anyone else who has had this gremlin after installing Windows 2000 SP3.

Any other ideas would be glad to hear them.

 

[Dreamboat]

LOL I like that <grin> of yours.

Sorry. I still say it's permissions. Did you double-check? Can they double-click any other *.dot file from there? I know it's a PITA, but methinks you need to double-check permissions. What are you forgetting? I'm FAR from a sysadmin--not even close. You are the guys I blame everything on when I can't figure it out. Hee hee.

I was in my WinXP pro permissions a couple weeks ago. I know I shouldn't go in without adult supervision, but I was trying to help someone fix Word. We did everything to no avail. So, I thought I'd double-check permissions, tho she described a setup like mine. Only one user, the user is me, and I'm an Admin. We both work at home. We went into permissions, and I found that the &quot;system&quot; (as a user?) did not have certain permissions. Perhaps the &quot;system&quot; does not have the right to write (I soooo want to figure out a way to add &quot;Wright&quot; into that sentence) to that folder?

Anne Troy

http://www.TheOfficeExperts.com

Word and Excel Macros
Coming soon: wX

 

[Olster]

Anne, yes I do believe it has something to do with permissions also. I have just changed the logon.cmd file to say place a copy of the company normal.dot in the users Application data\Microsoft\Templates\ folder. This has resolved the users problem temporarily but it worked for 18 months the way we had it until Service Pack 3 for Win2K was installed.
I thought someone else may have seen this, surely we aren't the only people who have applied SP3 in this environment.

If I find something I will let you know.

Olster

 

[Dreamboat]

So, Olster...why not ask in the Windows forum? Aren't there more people like you in there? Hee hee. Sysadmins don't hang around in here much. LOL

Nothing more to add, sorry. Best of luck!!

Anne Troy

http://www.TheOfficeExperts.com

Word and Excel Macros
Coming soon: wX