Group Policy Desktop Wallpape not applying - Windows Server 2008 R2 (Also print server driver issue

[Astarael]

I've posted this on a bunch of a forums, and spent several hours browsing the interwebs, but so far no luck. I figured no harm in putting it up here too.

We just upgraded our servers from shit decade old Windows 200 to brand new Windows Server 2008 R2, and I'm having two little issues with getting them set up:

Issue the first
I added a desktop wallpaper to the group policy management in a domain level policy, so it should apply to all users. It's just a basic .bmp with company name, logo and internal phone list. On the windows 200 servers to get the desktop to apply, we had to turn on active desktop, then set the desktop option to on and list the link to a server share.with the new server, I've tried with both active desktop off and on (although imo it should be off), and have had no luck. In both cases itresets the users self-set wallpaper to a single colour, with active desktop off its the windows blue, with active desktop on it's white.

All the machines in the building are running XP, but we do have one or two on vista and 7. None are showing the desktop correctly.


Issue the second
This one is more complicated. The new servers are 64 bit machines, the workstations are all 32bit. When I install printer drivers on the server, it requires the 64 bit drivers. When I go to add the equivalent 32bit drivers to the server so it can push those out to clients requesting printer install, it takes the driver, but before finishing asks for "X86 processor architecture". Now after googling I found out it's looking for a file called "ntprint.inf" or something similar, but I am unable to locate this o a similar fix anywhere.

In order to get the printers workin, but still spooling and queueing on the serve, I had to install the printers with a local port that points to a server share of the printer (\\server\printer), and then manually browse to a server share with the 32bit drivers. This works, but leaves a slight delay in between printing and spooling, which was enough to get the users bitching.

Any solutions or insight appreciated, and no, removing the users is unfortunatly not an optio.

[Ratatapa]

For the Desktop here is what i have on my 1 w2008 server

in group policies Management I open the group policy that is for the logon users and go into

User Config - Policies - Admin templates - Desktop- Desktop

The menu is called Desktop Wallpaper

You have to share the folder where the wallpaper is and put the Wallpaper name in this format

\\ServerWhereWallPaperisput\Folder\Walpapername.bm p

Make sure the users have the right to that folder in share and security

We also have Active Desktop and Prohibit change in that same Place to Enabled.

Hope that helped

[Ratatapa]

Forgot to add, all our Workstation are on XP but im sure it will work for Vista/7 too

[Niya]

Hm, the printer driver problem sounds slightly familiar... Had it the other way round this week, x86 server (2003), x64 driver for Win7. On the first try with the specific Win7 driver for the printer the server accepted it but asked for the x64 setup disk of 2003. Switched over to the universal HP driver that can be used for all Win-Versions from XP to 7 and the server accepted both x86 and x64 without any further questions... Just an idea, may also depend on what printers you use and whether there are specific/universal drivers for them.

[Astarael]

@Ratatapa - Already have it set up like that. It should be that simple, but for some reason not applying for us. Instead of setting it at domain level I think today I'll try setting it in a new policy inside the specific group of the users who need it. Can't see how this would make a difference, but who knows, maybe.

@Niya - sounds like the same problem, but we've tried universal drivers and none of them have been taking. Although you mentioning the setup disk gives me an idea, I'll try browsing to a win XP SP2 setup disk today when it asks for processor architecture and see if it can pick up the file it needs from there.

thanks to both of you for the ideas.

[Obiron]

I was just modifying my Desktop policy today and ran across this thread. I'm using Server 2003 and all XP clients, so hopefully this helps.
First, I used to use Active Desktop, and it seemed to respond better to JPG than to BMP. You might want to try that.
Second, if you have your PCs locked down tight, I ran into an issue with Active Desktop that prompted me to turn it off. Occasionally it would crash, leaving a button to recover Active Desktop, but the users didn't have enough rights to recover. Never could find the exact rights to open up without giving local admin, so I just turned it off. Here's how I'm set up now:
"Disable Active Desktop" - Enabled
"Active Desktop Wallpaper" - Enabled and set (I did this because without it users could right click a picture and set it, doing this stops that). Path doesn't matter because this picture doesn't actually show with the Active Desktop disabled.

Then I created and imported an adm file with the following contents:

CLASS USER

CATEGORY "JVH-Control Panel\Desktop"
KEYNAME "Control Panel\Desktop"

 POLICY "Wallpaper"
  PART "Wallpaper"
  EDITTEXT
  DEFAULT "\\jvh-wsus\Policy\Wallpaper\WALLPAPER.bmp"
  VALUENAME "Wallpaper"
  END PART
 END POLICY

 POLICY "WallpaperStyle"
  PART "WallpaperStyle"
  EDITTEXT
  DEFAULT "0"
  VALUENAME "WallpaperStyle"
  END PART
 END POLICY

END CATEGORY

This just sets the wallpaper in the registry. The two settings are the path (BMP is fine in this case) and the Style (0 = center). You can change these in the adm, or you can change it within the policy. Just be sure to enable these settings after you've imported the adm if you go that route (post back or PM if you're not familiar with custom ADMs).

[Astarael]

Managed to get this working thanks to your help Obiron. Just needed to disable active desktop, as it had already applied the correct wallpaper but was blocking it from view with some active desktop crap. Popped up immediately after a gpupdate.

As for the second fix, incase anyone comes across a similar issue, managed to get it working by installing the printers as local devices, but when setting the local port point it to the server share instead. Just have to install the drivers manually and it works alright. All spooling happens on the client, while print queues are still worked through the server.