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Darrell
Is there a way to copy the start menu layout to any new users who log onto the computer for the first time.
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Andrew Thomas
25
Reputation points
This may have been asked many times before, but I have not come across a good answer. I'm trying to find a way to copy a standard start menu layout to any new users who log into the computer without using any settings on the domain controller, which I don't have access to. The user will be created as a local account on the computer.
Windows for business | Windows Client for IT Pros | User experience | Other
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Michael Taylor 60,326 Reputation points2025-02-25T15:20:08.52+00:00 The layout is a personalized setting so the only way this might remotely work is if you updated the default user settings. But that would require you to configure a user with the appropriate settings and then "copy" the settings to the default user I believe. Not sure how doable that is. Of course the default user profile is only used to create new profiles so as soon as a user has a profile on the machine then their settings are fixed and would have to be personalizer per user.
The best choice is to use a GP for this but you said you didn't want to touch the domain. I also don't believe GP has the level of support that you'd need to do this. I haven't looked at where Win11 stores its settings but historically it stored at least some shell settings in the registry. If that remains true then you can implement a GP policy to apply a registry change that would set the appropriate settings. But this is going to be tricky and it would overwrite any customizations the user may make after the fact. So ultimately I don't think this is a viable option.