This is actually not that difficult to accomplish.
Objectives: 1) Automate the update of hosts files on client PC's.
2) Create a URL shortcut on your users desktop.
1)
What you can do is create a hosts file with all of the changes you need and save it on your server somewhere. The script will copy the "master" hosts file and overwrite the hosts file on the local PC's.
Location of hosts file:
On WinXP - C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc On Win2k - C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc
You can use the
%systemroot%\system32 variable to make the script work for both OS.
This is what the script should say:
copy \\ServerName\Share\hosts %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc
2)
You should create a shortcut of the webpages (intranet pages) you would like your users to have on their desktops.
Copy those shortcuts in a network share (make sure everyone has proper rights and priviledges to the share)
The script should have the following to achieve this.
copy \\ServerName\Share\*.* \\%USERPROFILE%\desktop
I attached a .txt file with the basic script that you will need. You will have to make a few changes. First, you will have to enter the correct server share info. Then you will have to rename the file from logon.txt to logon.bat
The next step would be to add the logon.bat as part of the users profile in the AD user manager.
Its allot of stuff to assimilate but give it a shot.