We do have a system for defining settings that would be used by all users for a computer, but in your case it sounds like Nathan’s suggestion may work just fine.
Also note that settings files only contain non-default values. You may not have to distribute settings files at all depending on what your “custom stuff” is.
Great! Thanks for your help.
Dan
It sounds like I might be able to build on what I already have, just with more flexibility. I use my batch file to update toolbars, template files, my custom plug-ins, etc. It keeps us all on “the same page”.
Thanks,
Dan
Hi there,
I’ve been reading this thread very closely and found valuable information about the workings of V6. I work as a senior lecturer for Rhino at the UAS in Aachen. Currently, we deal with issues concerning V6 and restoring settings after restart. Our IT staff has indirectly blocked access to the APPDATA path where Rhino settings are found. As far as the information is correct, Rhino has been installed with higher priviliges and then integrated with a mandatory profile over the network. As soon as terminal users log in as users with lower privileges they are not granted access to the APPDATA folders since the username of the administrator who installed Rhino in preperation of the mandatory profile seems to be embedded within the depths of Rhino leading to a conflict of privileges. Do you have any suggestions on how to tackle this problem since my gut feeling tells me that this issue will not end there but progress with additional plugins that make use of the APPDATA folder structure. Help would be appreciated. Merry X-Mas anyway
Kind Regards,
Ante Ljubas
Hi Ante,
this is not to address your post entirely, but I think if you block user’s access to APPDATA folder, many scripts or plugins may not work, as this is a typical place to save settings for these. Just FYI. I know that most of the tools I write use that location to store settings so without access to it they would not work.
Just to confirm your ‘gut feeling’ 
–jarek
Hi Jarek,
thanks for your reply and affirmation. I did forward your reply to see what the reaction with our colleagues would be. As it seems, there are user folders that for some reason after starting Rhino aren’t used anymore but instead runtime execution is redirected to administrative folders which are blocked for terminal users. As far as I understood they wish for a plugin that overwrites Rhino’s settings derived from administrative installation adapting to user profile compatible settings and copying relevant data like settings files into the user folder APPDATA structure. I’ve read Steve Bear’s comments on a “system for defining settings” which sounds like this is what we need to adress to make things work correctly. Any idea if such a plugin is possible and how it should look like? Or is the problem how Rhino is integrated in the mandatory profile? I’ve read stuff on rewriting registry data with %username% overwrites but that seems obsolete with v6.
Merry X-Mas
Ante
I’m confused, what are your colleagues trying to accomplish?
Hi Steve,
coming back to your reply a few weeks ago, I had a conversation with our IT expert. He stated that their installation of Rhino through the network is coupled with fixed paths and they wish for a variable that connects to changing users who log into the terminals. His notion is that Rhino environment variables are not being resolved. Currently, after installation of Rhino the user logs in - and while logging in, loses access - and cannot access the APPDATA paths due to restrictions that stem from the admin login used while installing. He wrote about conventional programs that usually have a default profile which can be integrated in a mandatory profile at least and is missing with Rhino (6). From that technical point of view he argues, it is not about restrictions or access rights granted but a missing default profile. He further argues that Rhino is constrained by fixed paths which is rather unusual since he usually deals with environment variables that are easy to adapt to network needs.
Does that help in understanding the problem? Help is appreciated. I hope there may be a simple solution.
Kind Regards
Ante
p.s. here´s a translated reply by our IT staffer
"Since I’ve spent many hours working with Rhino, I know the Rhino Profile very well. At first I also thought that it is sufficient to modify the registry. Unfortunately this was not effective. Since not only information is stored here, but also in some configuration files in the profile itself. Using the environment variable here failed because Rhino does not resolve it.
After some failed solutions, I decided to:
• install the Rhino plug-ins system wide
• not integrate Rhino into the Mandatory Profile
So users always get a working Windows profile and a running Rhino.
Your suggested third-party applications may fix the problem but are laborious and cost intensive. In addition, as with a Roaming Profile, it is not guaranteed that this will always work without errors. However, as we ensure the terminal users always want to get a working profile we use the Mandatory Profile."
What environment variable is Rhino supposed to be resolving?
Thank you for answering, Steve!
I think it’s best that our colleague contacts you to explain his situation since I’m more or less translating his replies to my requests. I forwarded your question to him and asked him to join this thread. I hope this is ok for you.
Greetings
Ante
That’s fine. I’m also probably not the correct person to help since this sounds like it may be installer related, but I don’t understand the issues well enough yet to make that decision.