A little background - I volunteer for an organization that has about 25 employees, and 10 computers. No one is assigned their own machine; everyone can use any machine (most are laptops), and everyone has their own user profile. We have a windows SBS 2012 server with a shared folder that everyone can access.
We use Outlook. Even though I now hate Outlook with the thermonuclear fire of a thousand suns, it's what everyone knows how to use. Thing is, every time we change our configuration (as we are doing now, switching e-mail providers), I need to go to each machine and change each user's Outlook settings. That means I need to set up Outlook 250 times. Needless to say, it takes forever, and I've already done it more times then I care to contemplate.
Now, recently I discovered something nifty: You can set up Outlook the way you want, export the keys in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook" to a .reg file, import them on another machine, and whichever user is currently logged in will have their Outlook settings updated. I even wrote a batch file that backs up the old \Outlook keys and imports the new ones. The big problem I have is that I can't figure out how to import a .reg file to another user's hive via the command line. I can load the other user's hive, but the "reg import" command doesn't seem to have any way of specifying exactly where, in the temp directory you've loaded the new hive to, that you want to import the new keys. Importing the .reg file just sticks the info into HKCU_CURRENT_USER.
I've already set up Outlook on one machine and exported .reg files for all users to the shared directory on a network drive. But I'd like to write a batch file that will load each user's HKCU, import the relevant .reg file, save and unload the hive, and move on to the next user. If this works, I can simply run it once on each machine, saving metric truckloads of time. Otherwise I have to log on as each user and then import the relevant .reg file. Still marginally faster then setting up Outlook over and over again, but not by much.
And before anyone asks why I'm not using a GPO, well, I am, for some machines. But some of the machines don't have Win 7 or 8 Pro, and can't join domains - not only that, but I want to know how to do this for future reference in the possible absence of a domain environment. Also, I'd like more control over the process - when you set up a GPO to add registry info on login, that info doesn't get added UNTIL the user logs in. I'd like users to be able to take a laptop with them from the office, turn it on at home or a remote job site, and have their new Outlook settings appear, even if they've never logged on to that machine while connected to our network.
Nutshell recap: Is it possible to open another user's HKCU from the command line or a batch file, import a .reg file, close it, and do the same with another user, all while only logged in once? Or am I
asking for the impossible and/or ridiculous here?
Your input is much appreciated! :)