OSD Scripting Hack Part 1 – Enable file extensions for all users

In a new series of short posts I’m going to show how to get around some frustrations I have had with the lack of GPO support for some common requirements plus a few other issues I have come across which have crept up recently.

First in the series is a build fix for file extensions. By default, these aren’t enabled and at the time of writing there isn’t a GPO that can be applied that applies them for users when they log on so they have to be enabled manually. Personally I find it frustrating that I can’t see what kind of file something is and it is usually the first thing I change when  I log into a new computer. Anyway, among others, this became a requirement for a recent project I was on and after a bit of playing around and further research I came up with the following Powershell script:

reg load HKLM\DefaultUser C:\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT
 $path = "HKLM:\Defaultuser\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced"
 New-ItemProperty -Path $path -Name HideFileExt -Value "0" -Type DWord
 reg unload HKLM\DefaultUser

This should be run as a task sequence step but depending on your deployment tool of choice, Powershell commands can occasionally be a little fussy. If you are using MDT, you might find the following works better if set up as a commandline:

Powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -command "reg load HKLM\DefaultUser C:\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT; New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\Defaultuser\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced' -Name HideFileExt -Value 0 -Type DWord; reg unload HKLM\DefaultUser"

The above should also work fine for SCCM although SCCM isn’t as picky as stand-alone MDT so either might work there.

Next time, Performance settings.

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