Active Directory® for Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 Technical Reference

Using Scripts to Manage the User Environment

Another tool that you can use to manage user desktops is scripts. The most common use for scripts is to create a simpler work environment for the user. Most commonly, logon scripts are used to map network drives or to map printers. They help to simplify the end user’s environment. User logon scripts were available with Windows NT. However, the use of scripts in Windows Server 2003 Active Directory provides a number of significant advantages when compared to Windows NT 4, including:

• Ability to assign startup and shutdown scripts. With Active Directory, you can assign scripts to run when computers start up and shut down. With Windows NT, this was very difficult. These scripts run in the security context ...