Wallpaper Updates

[Guest Magert]

We currently are looking for suggestions on a problem have been experiencing

in our environment. Throughout the company of approximately 2,500 users, we

have a standard desktop wallpaper. This wallpaper is usually changed once a

week and is controlled by our marketing department. Whenever this department

wants to change the wallpaper, they place a new Wallpaper.bmp file into a

shared network location that everybody in the company has read access to.

Our machines have a startup script that runs at boot to check for a new

wallpaper file. The script compares the date and time of the

c:\windows\web\wallpaper\wallpaper.bmp file with the date and time of the

wallpaper file on the server. If the file has a newer time stamp, the file

is copied over to the local machine. We currently have many machines that do

not receive the new wallpaper. We have many machines where this process

works with no problem. However, there are also many machines where this

process fails and the wallpaper does not update. On these machines that

fail, there is no error message displayed, the wallpaper simply does not

update. We are looking for assistance on determining the reason for these

failures. Also, these failures mainly occur on our Lenovo T42's and Dell

Latitude D630's.

 

Please let me know any other information you may need. Thanks!

[Guest ChrisM]

Re: Wallpaper Updates

 

In message 83608A53-71EB-4E39-BE7A-9774383985B3@microsoft.com,

Magert <Magert@discussions.microsoft.com> Proclaimed from the tallest tower:

> We currently are looking for suggestions on a problem have been

> experiencing in our environment. Throughout the company of

> approximately 2,500 users, we have a standard desktop wallpaper.

> This wallpaper is usually changed once a week and is controlled by

> our marketing department. Whenever this department wants to change

> the wallpaper, they place a new Wallpaper.bmp file into a shared

> network location that everybody in the company has read access to.

> Our machines have a startup script that runs at boot to check for a

> new wallpaper file. The script compares the date and time of the

> c:\windows\web\wallpaper\wallpaper.bmp file with the date and time of

> the wallpaper file on the server. If the file has a newer time

> stamp, the file is copied over to the local machine. We currently

> have many machines that do not receive the new wallpaper. We have

> many machines where this process works with no problem. However,

> there are also many machines where this process fails and the

> wallpaper does not update. On these machines that fail, there is no

> error message displayed, the wallpaper simply does not update. We

> are looking for assistance on determining the reason for these

> failures. Also, these failures mainly occur on our Lenovo T42's and

> Dell Latitude D630's.

>

> Please let me know any other information you may need. Thanks!

 

What happens if you run the script by hand?

Can you break it down and run it step-by-step, or with some debug comments

in so that you can see what is going on?

You need to experiment with the script with files with known datestamps so

that you can simulate all possible scenarios

 

--

Regards,

Chris.

(Remove Elvis's shoes to email me)

[Guest Big_Al]

Re: Wallpaper Updates

 

ChrisM wrote:

> In message 83608A53-71EB-4E39-BE7A-9774383985B3@microsoft.com,

> Magert <Magert@discussions.microsoft.com> Proclaimed from the tallest tower:

>

>> We currently are looking for suggestions on a problem have been

>> experiencing in our environment. Throughout the company of

>> approximately 2,500 users, we have a standard desktop wallpaper.

>> This wallpaper is usually changed once a week and is controlled by

>> our marketing department. Whenever this department wants to change

>> the wallpaper, they place a new Wallpaper.bmp file into a shared

>> network location that everybody in the company has read access to.

>> Our machines have a startup script that runs at boot to check for a

>> new wallpaper file. The script compares the date and time of the

>> c:\windows\web\wallpaper\wallpaper.bmp file with the date and time of

>> the wallpaper file on the server. If the file has a newer time

>> stamp, the file is copied over to the local machine. We currently

>> have many machines that do not receive the new wallpaper. We have

>> many machines where this process works with no problem. However,

>> there are also many machines where this process fails and the

>> wallpaper does not update. On these machines that fail, there is no

>> error message displayed, the wallpaper simply does not update. We

>> are looking for assistance on determining the reason for these

>> failures. Also, these failures mainly occur on our Lenovo T42's and

>> Dell Latitude D630's.

>>

>> Please let me know any other information you may need. Thanks!

>

> What happens if you run the script by hand?

> Can you break it down and run it step-by-step, or with some debug comments

> in so that you can see what is going on?

> You need to experiment with the script with files with known datestamps so

> that you can simulate all possible scenarios

>

On the machines it fails, does it fail reliably, EVERY time?

 

As much time as it takes to copy a wallpaper, I'm not sure I wouldn't

just copy it on every login. Bingo!. What, 2 seconds?? If you were

copying a database of 10 gig or something, yes your logic is great, but

one wallpaper?

 

Not sure what logic you are using to judge date, but Microsoft has a

tool "robocopy.exe" that is part of a Microsoft Resource Toolkit, free,

that you can get. Its one of many utilities in the zip. But it has

switches to do just such a thing. Its much like copy or xcopy but more

robust, thus its name robo (robust) copy. I use it to do basic backups

of folders. It copies all the changes and none of the asis files.