IconZone
Description
This utility changes desktop icons, start-menu icons and quick-launch icons as well as proxy settings whenever the computer’s IP address is changed.
It is also capable of running scripts whenever the IP address changes.
Here are a number of usage scenarios:
- Configure a laptop computer to automatically set the organizational proxy server as the internet proxy server whenever the laptop is connected to the office LAN and disable the proxy settings when the user is disconnected.
- Configure a laptop computer to display an outlook shortcut on the desktop when the laptop is connected to the office LAN and replace it with a web-access internet shortcut when the laptop is disconnected
- Configure to run a script that sends an administrative notification whenever the computer is connected to the LAN.
These are only few samples. You could use IconZone in many ways to enhance user experiment and automate your network.
Requirements: This tool requires Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003.
Download
Download iconzone.zip (106kb)
You need to extract the tool/script found in the downloaded file by using WinZip or similar.
Installation
- First, download IconZone and expand it into any location on your hard drive.
Note: It is recommended not to use a temporary directory but a permanent directory such as \C:\Program files\IconZone\.
- Click Start a Run and Type the path to IconZone.exe with the /Setup argument. For example:
C:\Program files\IconZone\iconzone.exe /setup
- If IconZone is not configured to launch automatically when windows starts, the following screen will appear:
If you click ‘YES’, the IconZone will start automatically whenever windows starts through
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\IconZone
Registry key.
Usage
Configuration parameters
The following screen enables you to configure IconZone:
- Check Interval – Interval in seconds between IP address check. Default is 15. As you decrease the value of check interval, zone changes are detected more quickly, but the CPU utilization is higher. There is also a short delay cause by the OS. Recommended values: 5 to 15 seconds. These settings apply to all zones.
- Number of second to display zone name – Each time the zone is changed, a message appears on the screen specifying the new zone. Set this value to specify how long the message should appear on screen, or set it to 0 to specify that the message should not be displayed at all. These settings apply to all zones.
- Update desktop / Update quick launch / Update start menu – Specify whether to copy icons from the zone’s directory to those directories. These settings apply to all zones.
- Start Menu Sub Directory – Specify the start menu sub directory to which the icons will be copied. These settings apply to all zones.
- Save Zone – Saves current zone settings to the registry.
- New Zone – Creates a new zone. A confirmation popup message will appear to confirm zone’s directory creation.
- Erase Zone – Erases current zone data from the registry. The zone’s directory will remain.
- Open Dir – Opens current zone’s directory for browsing.
- Zone – A zone is identified by the network ID. Whenever one of your IP address changes to match a pre-configured zone, IconZone would place the appropriate icon on the desktop, start menu and quick launch, Set the proxy settings and run an executable file chosen by you. This drop-down list displays the current zone. When a different zone is selected, the zone’s data will be retrieved from the registry and displayed on screen.
- Display Name – Zone’s friendly name. Whenever the zone changes, the zone’s display name is displayed on screen.
- Directory – Zone’s directory. Each zone has it own directory which includes three sub directories: Desktop, QuickLaunch and StartMenu. Place the zone’s unique icons in those directories and when the user will enter the zone, those icons would be copied to his/hers desktop / Quick-Launch / Start-menu directories. The default directories are on the same directory where IconZone is installed, but you could use a network location as well if you would like to use a common directory for many users.
- Icon removal list – this is a semi-column separated list that specifies which icons are to be deleted from the desktop, start-menu and quick-launch when the user has entered the zone.
- Run script – specify an EXE / BAT / COM / CMD file to execute when the user enters the zone.
- Enable proxy – Enable / Disable / Do not configure proxy settings when entering the zone. If this checkbox is checked, the proxy server will be set as specified in the ‘Proxy Server’ and ‘Proxy Port’ text boxes.
- Proxy server – Specifies the proxy server that will be used when the user is in the specified zone. This setting only applies when ‘Enable proxy’ checkbox is checked.
- Proxy server port – Specifies the proxy server port to use. If this setting is no configured, port 80 is used by default.
Backing up IconZone’s Data
To backup the IconZone data perform the following steps:
- IconZone’s settings are saved under the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\GanoTools\IconZone
- After configuring all settings, please export this key to a REG file and save it in a secured location.
- IconZone’s directories are saved to the specified directory of each zone. You should also backup these directories in order to maintain the icons that are copied to the user’s environment.
Deploying IconZone in your domain
You could deploy IconZone settings by the following procedures:
- Configure IconZone settings on any computer.
- Export the following registry to a REG file and save it in a common location in which users have ‘READ’ permissions.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'SOFTWARE'GanoTools'IconZone
- Copy IconZone.exe to a common location.
- If you used zones directories which are located on the local hard drive, Copy those directories to the common location as well.
Example:
\\fileserver\public\iconzone\zonedirs
- Create a batch file which imports the REG file (Using regedit –s command) from the common location used in the previous paragraph.
Example:
Regedit –s \\fileserver\public\iconzone\iconzone.reg
- Add a line which creates a local directory for the IconZone.exe.
Example:
md c:\program files\iconzone
- Add a line which copies IconZone.exe from the common location used in paragraph 3.3 to the local directory created in paragraph 3.6.
Example:
xcopy /d /y \\fileserver\public\iconzone\iconzone.exe c:\progra~1\iconzone\iconzone.exe
- If you used zones directories which are located on the local hard drive, add a line which copies those directories to the same location on the user’s local drive (Using xcopy /d /y command).
Example:
xcopy /d /y /s \\fileserver\public\iconzone\zonedirs\*.* c:\progra~1\iconzone\*.*
- Using group policy, Deploy the script as a startup script (Computer Settings > Windows Settings > Scripts > Startup). Make sure the group policy object is linked to the OU where the computer account resides.
- In the same group policy object, set the ‘Run these programs at user logon‘ setting to run the iconzone.exe from the local directory specified in paragraph 7:
Computer Settings > Administrative Templates >System > Logon > Run these programs at user logon
Removal
An updated version of IconZone that will have an uninstall option will soon be available. For now, in order to remove IconZone perform the following steps:
- Stop the IconZone.exe process from the Manager.
- Delete the following Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\GanoTools\IconZone
- Delete the following Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\IconZone
Support
No support of any sort will be given for this script/tool or for any other script/tool found on the Petri.co.il website for that matter. If you need to contact us with any support issues, feedback or suggestions regarding the tool(s) and script(s) found on this page please write an e-mail to THIS address.
Disclaimer
The software available from GanoTools is FREEWARE. It is not in the Public Domain. Asaf Ganot retains the copyright for this work. You can use it freely but do not claim it for your own or charge others money for it.
Use these tools at your own risk. They are provided for your own personal use and enjoyment and Asaf Ganot nor Daniel Petri nor Petri.co.il do not provide any warranty for them, nor they will be held responsible for any result allegedly caused by use or misuse of any of the tools found on this page.
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