Windows7: bginfo via Group Policy

Scenario:

I want to change the logon screen (before user login) using bginfo

Solution:

You will need to tell BGinfo to modify the desktop background of the logon desktop (ctrl-alt-del screen). This setting will be stored inside the file c:\Temp\Wallpaper\MSH-DOM.bgi as soon as you select "File" -> "Save As" inside the BGinfo GUI. 

So, launch BGInfo. Click on the button "Desktops" in the lower righthand corner. 

Inside the "Desktops" dialogue box check your wallpaper modifications. There are three of them and each of these three items can have one of 3 settings. 

The 3 wallpaper modifications are: 

+ User Desktop 

+ Logon Desktop for Console users 

+ logon Desktop for Terminal Services users 

The 3 settings for each modification are: 

+ Update this wallpaper 

+ Do not alter this wallpaper 

+ Change this wallpaper to '(None)' 

Assuming your system is not a Terminal Server, you will need to change the item Logon Desktop for Console users to the value Update this wallpaper. 

Confirm by clicking on OK, then Apply. Save the modified settings to your BGI file as well. 

How to Remove the (none) IP Address Entries in BGInfo Background

johnbake-msft 

4 May 2011 4:00 AM 

• 3

I did a post last week that talked about using BGInfo on my demo machines so I can have machine information displayed in the Desktop Background.  It was pointed out to me that my screenshot showed my background had a slew of (open) entries in my IP Address list.  (See RED boxes below)

BGInfo Desktop Background with Multiple (none) IP Address Entries

 

Step 1: Define New Field

In order to remove these (none) entries from the Desktop Background I needed to create a new custom field that does a WMI call to get the IP Address.  I called the new field “IP Address” with two spaces between the “P” and the “A”.   It had to have two spaces because the field IP Address field already exists, and its one you can’t delete.  Next, select the WMI Query radio button then click Browse.

Step 2. Create WMI Query

In the WMI Query Selection dialog box, from the WMI Class drop-down menu selectWin32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration. In the Class Property drop-down menu, select IPAddress. The following WMI query is built in the WMI query box: SELECT IPAddress FROM Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration. If you click the evaluate button at this point you will probably see a bunch of NULL entries.

Step 3. Modify WMI Query

In the WMI query box add WHERE IPEnabled=True. Click the Evaluate button again and it should only show the IP addresses on enabled interfaces. Click OK.
Note:  If you have IPv6 enabled on the machine you will see both the IPv4 and IPv6 address on the same line.  My demo systems only use IPv4.

Step 4. New IP Address Field

The new field IP  Address now has the necessary WMI Query.  Click OK and the new custom field is now available for use.

Step 5. New User Defined Field

Here you can see my new User Defined Field is available to use.

Step 6.  The End Result

Once selected as a field to display, here is what the Desktop Background will look like.  Notice that all of the (none)entries are now gone.

Using Group Policy Preferences to control multiple BGinfo scripts

I wanted to apply a different BGinfo-scripted background image as the wallpaper depending on what system a user was logging into, all using a single Group Policy.

This means that all servers are set to have a uniform background colour, but users on regular PCs are still be able to use any custom wallpaper on other computers without having to re-set it after each login.

While it is probably possible to create long-winded batch scripts to do what I wanted, it’s a lot easier to use the Group Policy Preferences (GPP) file options to control which BGinfo script is given to which systems.

One thing worth noting about GPP file control: I found that you have to use the “Replace” action rather than “Update” in Group Policy Preferences, as the targeted systems only update file attributes when using the “Update” action.

Step 1: BGinfo Scripts

• Create the BGinfo scripts, and then put them in a network share that any authenticated user can access.
• The BGinfo.exe file will also need to be in this share.

Step 2: Group Policy Preferences

• Create Group Policy User Preference entries for your .bgi files and BGinfo.exe
• Optionally: apply item-level targeting if you want to limit which systems this preference applies to
  • I organise my systems into OUs (Organisational Units), but it’s easy to target specific Operating Systems if you prefer

Step 3: Logon Script

Finally, create the logon script to create the BGinfo background image every time a user logs in:

Click the “Show Files…” button and create a new batch file in the folder that opened in Explorer (e.g. bginfo.bat). Then open the batch file in your favourite text editor and paste the following line into it. (Modify the paths and filenames as required.)

IF EXIST C:\bginfo\yourfile.bgi c:\bginfo\bginfo.exe c:\bginfo\yourfile.bgi /timer:0 /silent /nolicprompt

Then close the text editor and Explorer window, click the “Add…” button, and select the batch file you just created.

The End Results: