USMT workaround for BGInfo desktop wallpaper

Posted on June 24, 2011 Updated on February 22, 2013

If you use BGInfo on your computers and migrate a user’s profile to a new computer, you’ll soon discover that the BGInfo of the new computer is overlaying BGInfo from the old computer, creating a very ugly desktop wallpaper.  The reason for this is that once BGInfo executes, it generates a new image from what the user had previously set for themselves.  Fortunately, the original image file’s location is stored in the registry as well.  The below script that I created is designed to run prior to USMT (while no user’s are logged into Windows).  It essentially mounts each user’s registry hive, grabs the original file from the registry and then resets the Wallpaper value for that user.

There is one caveat to this process however.  If within USMT you’ve set /uel:X to excludes user profiles older than X number of days, using this script will cause those profiles to now be recently logged into.  So before using this script, be sure to cleanup any old user profiles that you do not want migrated.

'==========================================================================
' AUTHOR  : Nick Moseley, https://t3chn1ck.wordpress.com
' COMMENT : This corrects a problem with migrating the BGInfo wallpaper vs.
' the user's actual wallpaperfile. This script will parse all User profiles
' on the computer, load their HKCU hive, then set the appropriate registry
' keys to reset a user's background image.
' HISTORY :
' 1.0 (06/23/2011) - Initial script
' 1.1 (02/20/2013) - Added Const LogFile to quickly define location
'==========================================================================
Option Explicit

Const LogFile = "C:\Windows\Temp\ResetBGInfo.log"
Const ForAppending = 8
Const HKLM = &H80000002
Const sReadUserKey = "Software\Winternals\BGInfo"
Const sSetUserKey = "Control Panel\Desktop"
Const sStringValueName = "Wallpaper"

Dim oReg, oFSO, oFile, oUserSubkey, aUserProfiles, oShell
Dim sProfileLCase, sRegExe, sRegLoad, sRegUnload, sHiveName, sSubPath, sProfile, sValueName, sKeyPathUserProfiles, sValue, ReturnVal

Set oReg = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\default:StdRegProv")
Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set oFSO = CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

'==========================================================================
' Begin log file etnries
'==========================================================================
If Not oFSO.FileExists(LogFile) Then
oFSO.CreateTextFile LogFile
End If
Set oFile = oFSO.OpenTextFile (LogFile, ForAppending, True)

oFile.WriteLine "Reset BGInfo values for all users for USMT"
oFile.WriteLine "  => Began at " & Date & " " & Time
oFile.WriteLine "  => For each user profile, set " & sStringValueName & " (string) to the user's Wallpaper settings in HKCU\" & sSetUserKey
'==========================================================================

' Begin configuration of existing user profiles
sValueName = "ProfileImagePath"
sKeyPathUserProfiles = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList"
sRegExe = "C:\Windows\system32\reg.exe"

oReg.EnumKey HKLM, sKeyPathUserProfiles, aUserProfiles

' Existing User Profiles
For Each oUserSubkey In aUserProfiles
sSubPath = sKeyPathUserProfiles & "\" & oUserSubkey
oReg.GetExpandedStringValue HKLM,sSubPath,sValueName,sValue

sProfile = Split(sValue, "\")
sProfileLCase = LCase(sProfile(2))

If sProfileLCase = "system32" Then
'oFile.WriteLine "  => Skipped user profile: system32"
ElseIf sProfileLCase = "localservice" Then
'oFile.WriteLine "  => Skipped user profile: localservice"
ElseIf sProfileLCase = "networkservice" Then
'oFile.WriteLine "  => Skipped user profile: networkservice"
ElseIf sProfileLCase = "serviceprofiles" Then
'oFile.WriteLine "  => Skipped user profile: serviceprofiles"
ElseIf sProfileLCase = "administrator" Then
'oFile.WriteLine "  => Skipped user profile: administrator"
Else
sHiveName = "TempHive_" & sProfileLCase

' Load user's profile hive into a temp location
sRegLoad = " LOAD HKLM\" & sHiveName & " """ & sValue & "\ntuser.dat"""
oShell.Run sRegExe & sRegLoad, 0, True

' Call subroutine to change registry key
SetConfigUserHive (sHiveName)

' Unload user's profile hive
sRegUnload = " UNLOAD HKLM\" & sHiveName
oShell.Run sRegExe & sRegUnload, 0, True
End If
Next

' End logging
oFile.WriteLine "  => Completed at " & Date & " " & Time
WScript.Quit (oFile.Close)

Sub SetConfigUserHive (sTempHive)
Dim sTempHiveKeyPath, sTempHiveWallpaperKeyPath, sWallpaperFile

' Path of registry keys
sTempHiveKeyPath = sTempHive & "\" & sReadUserKey
sTempHiveWallpaperKeyPath = sTempHive & "\" &  sSetUserKey

' Get BGInfo value
oReg.GetStringValue HKLM, sTempHiveKeyPath, "Wallpaper", sWallpaperFile

If sWallpaperFile="(None)" Or sWallpaperFile="" Then
oReg.SetStringValue HKLM, sTempHiveWallpaperKeyPath, "Wallpaper", ""
Else
oReg.SetStringValue HKLM, sTempHiveWallpaperKeyPath, "Wallpaper", sWallpaperFile
End If

oFile.WriteLine "  => Set user profile: " & sProfileLCase
oFile.WriteLine "     Note: Wallpaper value = " & sWallpaperFile
End Sub

Workaround for KB2444193 with USMT 4

Posted on June 24, 2011 Updated on February 20, 2013

There is a known issue when migrating to Windows 7 with USMT.  If a computer is deployed using an AutoUnattend.xml, then after migrating a user to the new computer, when the user launches IE they receive the message “A program on your computer has corrupted your default search provider…“.  One workaround is to have a script correct the SearchScope GUIDs for each user profile.  The script that I have written (below) simply mounts each user profile hive, then deletes the registry tree for the SearchScopes.  The effect is that when the user first launches IE 8, then it will pull the default Search Provider from HKLM defined in the deployed computer via AutoUnattend.

'==========================================================================
' NAME: DeleteUserIESearchProviders
' AUTHOR: Nick Moseley, https://t3chn1ck.wordpress.com
' COMMENT: Mounts user registry hives and deletes the IE Search Provider
' registry values.  This is to fix the issue caused by KB2444193
' HISTORY:
' 1.0 (06/23/2011) - Initial Script
'==========================================================================
Option Explicit
Const ForAppending = 8
Const HKLM = &H80000002
Const sUserKey = "Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes"
Dim oReg, oFSO, oFile, oUserSubkey, aUserProfiles, oShell
Dim sProfileLCase, sRegExe, sRegLoad, sRegUnload, sHiveName, sSubPath, sProfile, sValueName, sKeyPathUserProfiles, sValue, ReturnVal
Set oReg = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\default:StdRegProv")
Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set oFSO = CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
' Prompt if OK to continue
Dim x
x = msgbox ("Click OK to delete the IE Search Provider for all user profiles", vbOKCancel, "Fix IE Search Provider")
If x<>1 Then
 WScript.Echo "Script Terminated"
 WScript.Quit
End If
'==========================================================================
' Begin log file etnries
'==========================================================================
If Not oFSO.FileExists("C:\DeleteSearchProvider.log") Then
 oFSO.CreateTextFile "C:\DeleteSearchProvider.log"
End If
Set oFile = oFSO.OpenTextFile ("DeleteSearchProvider.log", ForAppending, True)
oFile.WriteLine "Delete IE Search Provider"
oFile.WriteLine "  => Began at " & Date & " " & Time
oFile.WriteLine "  => For each user profile, deleted HKCU\" & sUserKey
'==========================================================================
' Begin configuration of existing user profiles
sValueName = "ProfileImagePath"
sKeyPathUserProfiles = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList"
sRegExe = "C:\Windows\system32\reg.exe"
oReg.EnumKey HKLM, sKeyPathUserProfiles, aUserProfiles
' Existing User Profiles
Dim sHiveKeyPath
For Each oUserSubkey In aUserProfiles
    sSubPath = sKeyPathUserProfiles & "\" & oUserSubkey
    oReg.GetExpandedStringValue HKLM,sSubPath,sValueName,sValue
 
    sProfile = Split(sValue, "\")
    sProfileLCase = LCase(sProfile(2))
 
    If sProfileLCase = "system32" Then
     'oFile.WriteLine "  => Skipped user profile: system32"
    ElseIf sProfileLCase = "localservice" Then
     'oFile.WriteLine "  => Skipped user profile: localservice"
    ElseIf sProfileLCase = "networkservice" Then
     'oFile.WriteLine "  => Skipped user profile: networkservice"
    ElseIf sProfileLCase = "serviceprofiles" Then
     'oFile.WriteLine "  => Skipped user profile: serviceprofiles"
    ElseIf sProfileLCase = "administrator" Then
     'oFile.WriteLine "  => Skipped user profile: administrator"
    ElseIf sProfileLCase = "default" Then
     'oFile.WriteLine "  => Skipped user profile: default user"
    Else
     sHiveName = "TempHive_" & sProfileLCase
   
     ' Load user's profile hive into a temp location
     sRegLoad = " LOAD HKLM\" & sHiveName & " """ & sValue & "\ntuser.dat"""
     oShell.Run sRegExe & sRegLoad, 0, True
   
     ' Call subroutine to change registry key
  sHiveKeyPath = sHiveName & "\" & sUserKey
     DeleteSubkeys (sHiveKeyPath)
  oFile.WriteLine "  => Set user profile: " & sProfileLCase
   
     ' Unload user's profile hive
     sRegUnload = " UNLOAD HKLM\" & sHiveName
     oShell.Run sRegExe & sRegUnload, 0, True
    End If 
Next
' End logging
oFile.WriteLine "  => Completed at " & Date & " " & Time
WScript.Echo "Script Completed"
WScript.Quit (oFile.Close)
Sub DeleteSubkeys(sTempHiveKeyPath)
 Dim aSubKeys, oSubKey
 
    oReg.EnumKey HKLM, sTempHiveKeyPath, aSubKeys
    If IsArray(aSubKeys) Then
        For Each oSubKey In aSubKeys
            DeleteSubkeys sTempHiveKeyPath & "\" & oSubKey
        Next
    End If
    oReg.DeleteKey HKLM, sTempHiveKeyPath
End Sub