Using Login Scripts with Microsoft Networking

This section summarizes how to use login scripts for Windows 95 on Windows NT networks.

Login scripts are batch files or executable files that run automatically when a user logs on to a computer running either Windows NT, Windows 95, or MS-DOS. Login scripts are often used to configure users' working environments by making network connections and starting applications.

There are several reasons that you might want to use login scripts:

• You want to manage part of the user environment (such as network connections) without managing or dictating the entire environment.
• You want to create common network connections for multiple users.
• You already have LAN Manager 2.x running on your network, and you want to continue to use login scripts you have created for that system.

To assign a user a login script, designate the path name of the login script file in the user's account on the server. Then, whenever that user logs on, the login script is downloaded and run. You can assign a different login script to each user or create login scripts for use by multiple users.

To create a batch-file login script, create an MS-DOS batch file. (For more information on creating batch files, see the Windows NT Server System Guide or your MS-DOS documentation.) There are several special parameters you can use when creating login scripts, as shown in the following table.

Special Login Script Parameters

A login script is always downloaded from the server that validates a user's logon request. For users with accounts on Windows NT server domains that have one or more backup domain controllers and a primary domain controller, any one of the domain controllers can authorize a user's logon attempt. To ensure that login scripts always work for users, you should be sure that login scripts for all user accounts in a domain exist on every primary and backup domain controller in the domain. You can do this by using the Windows NT Replicator service, as described in the Windows NT Server System Guide.

Home directories on Windows NT networks are used to store user profiles and can also serve as private storage spaces for users. Typically, users also control access to their home directories and can restrict or grant access to other users.

To ensure access to user profiles, you should assign each user a home directory on a server. You can also assign users home directories on their own workstations (although this means that users won't have access to their user profiles from other computers); you might want to do this if you don't want the user to be able to access files and directories on the rest of the workstation.