When do computer startup scripts run?

I have two laptops, both running XP SP2 and fully patched/updated. I have a
startup script defined in GPO to add a few required registry entries to each
machine on startup, and I temporarily added a msgbox "Test" to the script so
I can see it is firing.

On one machine, the msgbox shows before the ctrl-alt-del logon box appears,
and on the other, the msgbox shows after the user has logged in, before the
desktop appears. Any ideas what causes the difference?

Thanks,
steve

 

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Steve,
My first guess is that possibly one script is firing from
\machine\scripts\startup and the other \user\scripts\logon. Is that a
possibility? @startup a script fires prior to the three finger salute
screen "ctrl-alt-del" and the @logon is once the user has authed with AD
and is loading the desktop environment.

Here is some more on the topic:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/community/columns/tips/2kscript.mspx
In the Group Policy folder, the \machine\scripts\startup,
\machine\scripts\shutdown, \user\scripts\logon, and \user\scripts\logoff
folders store the scripts that you configure as part of the script policy's
local computer policy.

Script Types
In Windows 2000 Group Policy, Microsoft has introduced four new script
types. These script types are startup, shutdown, logon, and logoff. Startup
and shutdown scripts are part of the Group Policy computer configuration.
You run startup and shutdown scripts on each computer that you apply the
script policy either directly or through Group Policy inheritance. Logon and
logoff scripts are part of the Group Policy user configuration. Group Policy
logon and logoff scripts provide a mechanism through which you can define
and apply common scripts to multiple users. The Group Policy logon script
isn't related to the logon script defined as part of a user's profile.


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