Copy Shortcuts to the Windows 7 Taskbar using MDT

Question

I would like to copy items to the Windows 7 taskbar for all users, and do this during deployment as part of a task sequence. Does anyone know if this can be done. I found a script called pinItem.vbs, but do not know if it could be done from a TS, nor
how it would be.

Answer 1

Hi Scott,
I would recommend this script:
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/ScriptCenter/b66434f1-4b3f-4a94-8dc3-e406eb30b750/
It's a poweshell module that allows you to pin, items to both the task bar and start menu during your reference image build task sequence.
It's very simple to use this with MDT 2012 U1. Simply place the module in the folder {deploymentshare}\Tools\Modules\PinnedApplications\PinnedApplications.psm1
Then for example create a powershell "script" that looks something like this:
Import-Module PinnedApplications.psm1
Set-PinnedApplication -Action PinToStartMenu -FilePath "C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Internet Explorer.lnk"
Set-PinnedApplication -Action PinToTaskbar -FilePath "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft Office\Microsoft Outlook 2010.lnk"
Since the module is placed in the Tools\Modules folder, MDT can find this module easily during deployment without needing to specify a path where the module can be found.
Now the most important part of everything.
Whether it's SCCM or MDT that you use to deploy your custom image, you need to edit the unattend.xml of the task sequence that is used to
>>>Deploy<<<
the image. The default user profile is copied upon first boot after the image is applied, and not during the sysprep execution of your task sequence before your image is captured.
The CopyProfile setting is not enabled by default with the unattend.xml files created by MDT or SCCM, you will need to use WSIM to add this entry, more info can be found here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff716261.aspx
Dispite the article saying you cannot pin applications to start menu and task bar (and this is normally true if you do these tasks manually, then these items will not persist in the new user profile), this scripted method actually does work.
Kind regards,
Stephan Schwarz
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