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Updating accounts monthly


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I work for a company that has approximatley 50-60 employees who each have a user name and password to log on to WindowsXP Professional. Now, each employee needs to upload pictures using the default windows XP "scanner and camera wizard" The sequence is as follows:

1- I enter Sandisk into E:

2- The welcome to the scanner and camera wizard e: appears

3- I choose pictures to copy

4- I type name for the group of pictures which is usually the default "picture"

5- I choose a place to save the group of pictures which is usually: m:\2009 pics\november [this is the issue]

6- I choose delete after copying radio button.

Now the issue I have is that some or most of the employees have a problem choosing the "browse" button at the time of choosing a "place to save the group of pictures" they are uploading onto the server. So each month, I go into 60 accounts, upload a dummy picture and save the picture into the corresponding folder for the corresponding month so that each time an employee logs onto the system and uploads a picture, the default "saving" location is going to be the folder "I" chose at the time of uploading the dummy picture for each account. Now each month, I must log on with each employee's password and user name and do this 60X every month which is a headache.

Now, you're probably saying "why not train each person to use the [browse] button and save the picture in the proper folder." Well, that doesn't work because I have November pictures in the September folder for 2009. Hey, at least they were in a 2009 September folder and not a 2006 September folder. Anyway, is there a way I can create a batch file or a macro under windows XP or DOS (command.com) to change all the accounts to upload all pictures under the E: Sandisk drive into the respected monthly folder automatically. I don't want to do this 60X a month anymore.

Oh, by the way, setting a separate terminal aside just for uploading pictures under a separate account will not work because someone always logs the system off or the power goes out and nobody knows how to do anything around here unless it's automatic. Keep in mind, everyone uploads countless pictures each month and they always go into the last folder that was set up by "me." If I forget to change an account, all the October and November pictures end up in the September folder and I have to check the modified dates and move each picture into the necessary folder which takes hours of time that I don't have anymore. Any ideas how to update each users account to place pictures into the corresponding monthly folder without doing the "dummy" picture upload 60X?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Brian

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Redirect there profiles to a file server and lock out the rest of the local machine?

Thanks, but how do I accomplish this task. I've never used a file server or moved profiles before. Willing to learn, but I have to start somewhere. A step by step would help or a link to a "how to" website. I'll see what I can do if its too much work to post a "how to."

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I thought this would be easy. Well it is if you use a Mac or Linux. But, having seen this sort of behavior from users before your best bet is to do this post-process. Train the user as best you can and then follow up with a batch file, or more appropriately Microsoft Powershell:

Not my doing but a working solution none the less.

http://stevesmithblog.com/blog/copy-pictur...ith-powershell/

A few pointers though use YYYY-MM-DD (I see the author mentions this also). This is programatically more friendly if you need to do more processing later. Also Microsoft's Alphanubetic* sorting works if you sort by name. While November is easy for a human to read programming it can be a pain in the ...

*My term (at least I've never heard anyone else use it) for the dumbass method of how Microsoft sorts numbers. Who the hell thought 1 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 made sense?

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It would be good to know your setup, and what the users are doing here. If it was me, I would be asking them to save to a network folder, and write protecting it at the end of the month. That way the wrong files won't be in the wrong month. You do have to train your users though, and part of that would be locking the machines down so they cannot save locally, and running everything off of a file server. I.E \\server\user\year\month\ or variations on this theme. Then the only locations they can upload to will be either My Documents or said network share.

For this, you will need a domain (a good investment with 60 machines/users), a file server and knowledge of group policy. You can just use local policy and a file server, but that gets complicated quickly.

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It would be good to know your setup, and what the users are doing here. If it was me, I would be asking them to save to a network folder, and write protecting it at the end of the month. That way the wrong files won't be in the wrong month. You do have to train your users though, and part of that would be locking the machines down so they cannot save locally, and running everything off of a file server. I.E \\server\user\year\month\ or variations on this theme. Then the only locations they can upload to will be either My Documents or said network share.

For this, you will need a domain (a good investment with 60 machines/users), a file server and knowledge of group policy. You can just use local policy and a file server, but that gets complicated quickly.

The people I work with aren't idiots, but they need things to stare them in the face. Most are computer illeterate and need everything automatic. However, all the pictures are saved on the server M:\ {month}. Cmon, they don't know how to use the browse button nonetheless try to put the pictures in the proper place. I see trying to set this up to work automatically would be a pain. I guess I will have to do this 60x a month for now. I'll research the above link and see what I can do.

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It would be good to know your setup, and what the users are doing here. If it was me, I would be asking them to save to a network folder, and write protecting it at the end of the month. That way the wrong files won't be in the wrong month. You do have to train your users though, and part of that would be locking the machines down so they cannot save locally, and running everything off of a file server. I.E \\server\user\year\month\ or variations on this theme. Then the only locations they can upload to will be either My Documents or said network share.

For this, you will need a domain (a good investment with 60 machines/users), a file server and knowledge of group policy. You can just use local policy and a file server, but that gets complicated quickly.

I would definitely be setting up a domain to authenticate against, and provide them a network share as a home drive and set up small sized roaming profiles just in case a machine craps out and they have to use another one.

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The people I work with aren't idiots, but they need things to stare them in the face. Most are computer illeterate and need everything automatic. However, all the pictures are saved on the server M:\ {month}. Cmon, they don't know how to use the browse button nonetheless try to put the pictures in the proper place. I see trying to set this up to work automatically would be a pain. I guess I will have to do this 60x a month for now. I'll research the above link and see what I can do.

No one is saying they are stupid, they just don't work in IT. I see the same behaviour with our Finance dept, they ask "dumb" questions but when I look at what they do with SAP I have no idea. In this setup, I would recommend that at the end of each month you set the folder to read only. Then I would look at using some form of script to replace the wizard. Store the script on the file server, disable auto-run on the client machhines, and create shortcuts to the script on the client PCs. Then each month, change the path the script saves images to. When they get a USB stick, the put it in, run the script and everything is automated. This way there is minimal user interaction with the process, its easier to use and far less room for mistakes.

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Are part of Activie Directory? Do they log in to a domain? Like Vako and wh1t3 and n3rdy said, they should have their own network shares per user or department, and you could then set up a bat script to run every month to move the files to an offload folder base don yoru needed namign convention of month/year, etc.

Have them mapped to a specific drive/share on the network through active directory, and have a bat script run at the end of each month on a schedule to move all the files on this drive to a read only folder on another share based on the month+year folder name you need to archive in.

Then when they login to the domain, they dont have to worrry about a dated folder to save to, just save it on the network share, have the script move them at the end of each month to the proper named folder on another share, new month, share is then empty again for new files.

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