Shortcuts now point to shares

[Jason Todd]

Here's another good one by NT in my lab - Samba 2.0.7 on RedHat 7.0 (linux
2.2.16-22smp) server, Windows NT 4.0 SP 6 workstations.

All of a sudden, many of my users' Start Menu and Desktop shortcuts don't
work correctly anymore.  When selected, they prompt for a username and
password for '\\WORKSTATION\ADMIN$' where WORKSTATION is some other
computer in the lab.  Apparently the account must be a local account for
WORKSTATION, but the only local account(s) on the machines are the default
when NT is installed (Administrator et al).  I examined the LNK files in
question, and each has the "local volume" AND "network share" bits set,
meaning the target can be found on a local drive (normal) in addition to a
network share on some other workstation (abnormal in these circumstances).
It is apparently trying the network share first, though I have no idea
why.  I was able to patch a screwed up LNK file by turning off the
"network share" bit and it worked, so I'll probably have to write a small
utility that strips that out of each and every shortcut in my users'
profiles.  Or, does anyone have any better ideas?  I'm very interested in
seeing if anyone else has experienced this.  The problem is just getting
worse, as more and more shortcuts are continually being affected.  I can't
tell if one machine in particular is screwing up the shortcuts.

P.S.  In the near future I'm going to turn off local caching of profiles,
which may prevent this from happening again.  Prevention aside, I need a
FIX first...

Jason Todd

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 This message was made possible by Jason Todd and by viewers like you.
 Senior Help Desk Assistant, Computing and Telecommunication Services
 Wright State University
 Reply to todd.4 at wright.edu or jasontodd at bigfoot.com