Windows 2000 Default user profiles

[Zero]

What I am trying to achieve is setting up a Windows 2000 machine that is on a network, to give everyone who logs onto the network on that machine the same settings. By this I mean when someone logs on to the network the 2000 machine automatically creates a local profile. The problem with this local profile is that it does not include settings such as added printers and internet connection settings. This means that every time someone logs on to the machine I have to set up printers and network settings. I think I need to create a default user profile that every user will get the settings that have been configured in this profile. Any help on this will be greatly appreciated as I have spent long hours trying to set this up without success.

[query]

There is no easy way to do this on a peer-to-peer windows 2000 network.

What you need is a Windows 2000 domain controller (server) -- Active Directory and group policies allow you to do just what you want to do.

[Zero]

This Win 2000 machine is on a domain. We have NT4 as our PDC is this still possible to configure and if yes, I would appreciate any tips on how to do this.

[query]

Yes, you can store the profile on the domain controller - build it as you wish on a 2000 machine and copy it to a share on the domain controller.  Then point the profile for the user at that share with the user manager.

You cannot finely control permissions on a 2000 machine from an NT domain controller - 2000 uses group permissions for most items, while NT uses user-level security.  For full control over user profiles, you need to move to an active directory (native Windows 2000/2003) server.