Thanks Bob - meanwhile the plot has thickened. On another machine, the opposite behavior occurs - the desktop doesn't appear even after the login script has completed! What effect does "always wait..." have on laptops that might not have any network connection at all when booted? I'd really rather solve the problem of making this work as a startup script. Carl
_____ From: Free, Bob [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 2:24 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Startup / Logon script issues > What would cause the "run logon scripts synchronously" policy from not being effective? Is "Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon" enabled? The logon performance enhancements in XP can present the desktop despite the synchronous setting. The always wait policy is said to disable Fast Logon Optimization feature. There's a MSKB article about it. This is something I saw that's related and also a possibility but I never looked into it- http://www.gpanswers.com/community/viewtopic.php?p=7099 From: Carl Houseman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 9:06 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Startup / Logon script issues Two questions: What could prevent a computer startup script from continuing until a user logs in? I know that it starts before the user logs in, but it hangs and eventually times out unless the user logs in. I also know it isn't network access, at least not obviously. The script is able to write a file on an Everyone-writable share before the user logs in. What would cause the "run logon scripts synchronously" policy from not being effective? I have verified that the setting is in effect with RSOP. The desktop is shown without any apparent delay, meanwhile the script takes up to 2 minutes to complete. From timestamps written at start and end of the script, I know that the logon script has not exited until long after the desktop is displayed. The same script is in play for both of the above questions - obviously I am trying to complete the script before the user has control of the computer. The script is a .cmd file that in turn cscript's a .vbs file located on a network share. thanks all, Carl ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
