Is it possible to create/amend a user network login script to set user windows desktop background to be a URL? I know on windows XP you can set the background to be the content of a URL, I'm just wondering if this process can be automated every time the user logs onto their desktop to always show the corporate homepage with upto date news headlines etc. If anyone can tell me if this is possible and if so, point me in the right direction of acheiving this. Thanks in advance.

Specify an Active Desktop wallpaper setting in Group Policy. To do this, follow these steps: 1. Click Start, click Run, and then type gpedit.msc. 2. Under Local Computer Policy, expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Desktop, and then click Active Desktop. 3. Double-click Active Desktop Wallpaper. 4. On the Setting tab, click Enabled, type the path (or URL) to the desktop wallpaper that you want to use, and then click OK.

Wouldn't this mean us having to set this locally for every employees workstation!? could it not be done once centraly by amending the login script? I've never been involved with login scripts, so I may be way of the mark! happy to be advised. Thanks

Group policy is set on the domain controller and passed down to every workstation at login - it is a centralized management tool to set policy across the whole domain. You can tell group policy when each workstation will get it's windows updates, roll out software updates, etc - all done on the server - not the individual workstation. So essentially it is equivalent to a login script - the policy is loaded at every log on.

Sorry probably should have mentioned that the network is based around Novel, desktop clients are running win XP OS. Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't domain controllers specific to windows networks? Can the same be acheived with a Novel network? Many thanks

I am not an expert on Novell but I am sure that there is an equivalent to group policies that exist in Windows Domain structure. It would require some research on your part to find out what tools are available on a Novell server for handling network wide policies.

http://www.novell.com/products/zenworks/ Here is the link to ZenWorks - the Novell equivalent of Windows Group Policy.