How to Add Shortcuts to the All Account’s Desktop without Removing System and Profile Restrictions

You go and install a new program that you want your patrons to be able to use but the icon (this also includes Internet Explorer shortcuts) for it does not show up in the “all” account on the Gates computers. The steps to add a shortcut to the desktop on the Gates computers will take about 10-15 minutes to do the way the book tells you to do it. Removing the System and Profile Restrictions, logging in and out of the accounts, and reinstalling the restrictions just to find out the icon disappeared. This seems like a lot of work just to put a little icon on a computer especially if you have three or four of the Gates computers to do. Here is an easier way I have discovered to do this.

1. Shutdown the computer and turn the Centurion Guard to the unlocked position.
2. Log into the “exec” account and install the program you intended for the “all” account.
3. When a program is installed on a computer most likely, it will create a shortcut icon on the desktop. Make sure the program works correctly in the “exec” account.
4. If you want to add an IE shortcut to the “all” account open to exact location of the page you want. Next, right-click a blank area located on the page and select Create Shortcut. It will prompt you that the shortcut will be placed on your desktop. Click OK.
5. Find the desired icon you want to show up in the “all” account and right-click it and select Copy.
6. Go to Start>Run…>Open: <type in> C:\Profiles\all\Desktop\ This will bring up a window that shows all of the desktop icons on the “all” account. Right-click a blank area located in this window and select Paste.
7. Close out of the desktop window and log out of the “exec” account. Log in as “all” and see if the icon shows up and works.
8. If a program that you installed gives you an error, it is most likely that the program needs administrative rights to run correctly. Any program like is not a good ideal to be running on a public computer.
9. Shutdown the computer and return the Centurion Guard back to the locked position.