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Using AppSense Environment Manager to import a Registry file

Using AppSense Environment Manager to import a Registry file

Posted by HTG
Another of the weird requests I’ve had in my time working in IT was one to change the default font for all Outlook users to (wait for it) 14-point Arial. I kid you not, some genius in the Diversity department at the client I was working for decided this would allow them to engage better with partially-sighted users. Notwithstanding the fact that Windows comes with built-in Accessibility tools to help people who can’t see very well, and the fact that sending emails to people without sight problems in such a great big font would probably be seen as – well, rather unprofessional – despite all these things, and the incredulous laughter of the IT department, they ploughed resolutely on with the change. So it was down to me to find out how to do it.
Not surprisingly, seeing as though Windows wasn’t actually meant to work like this, it took a bit of tracking down to find some Registry keys that would enforce the default font. So, after a few hours of resolute Googling, I found the required settings and set about deploying them, safe in the knowledge that when I did, the users would probably be on the phone reporting the unchangeable font as a problem! But as most of the values were binary, it highlighted another neat feature of AppSense Environment Manager – the ability to import a .reg file.

Without this function we’d have been stuck trying to run regedit.exe from a logon script or similar, which with the Group Policy Objects they were using (probably the one disabling Registry editing tools), would quite likely have been a bit of a PITA, to say the least. But never mind – it’s EM to the rescue, providing us with the ability to read the values – binary or otherwise – out of the .reg file and convert them into EM Registry actions. Clicking Import File on the first screen allows you to browse to your .reg file and select it. You can also browse Registry values from the local or remote computer, which is quite neat.

Once it’s imported the values, you can select if you actually want to create or delete the keys (a little confusing this, you have to tick the ones you want to delete and leave the ones you want to create).

We wanted to just grab the Office 2007 ones, so we will import them all (that means leaving them all unticked) and then just delete the ones we don’t need from the values it creates.

Once we click OK, we can see it create the separate actions for each key and value specified from the file.

Now we’ll tidy it up, deleting all the actions apart from the ones referencing version 12, which is the one we want, Office 2007.

And that’s that! Saved our configuration, deployed it, and just as we anticipated, the next morning we had some seriously-annoyed users on the phone, wondering why their fonts looked so big and ugly and wouldn’t change back. But it highlights another good feature of EM, one that is invaluable when it comes to tidying up years and years of logon scripts and Registry hacks that a lot of companies have cluttering their netlogon shares. And the best bit – quick and easy to import. EM FTW!

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