[Leaplist] centrally manage Windows XP Home?

[Jason Boxman]

Is anyone doing any interesting centralization of management for Windows XP 
Home based systems with Samba and any other friends?

As far as I know, without a domain you're stuck using old school workgroup 
based stuff.  I'd like to at least be able to mount a couple of Samba shares 
at system start time.

I'd be nice to centralize configuration of Thunderbird somehow; does it have 
any tools for handling that kind of thing?  Each system ought to have the 
same set of mail accounts.  It's a small business and people might roam 
between systems sometimes.

Is it possible to sync up stuff like start menu entries and desktop icons, or 
is that relegated also to the domain of using Active Directory?  I can't see 
justifying buying three or four copies of XP Professional, so I'm stuck with 
workgroups.

I'd run Linux on every desktop, but there's a not insubstantial quantify of 
proprietary domain specific software that only runs under Windows in play, 
along with Quick Books Pro and the necessity of opening Office formats in 
whatever the latest version may be.

Also, are there any worthwhile things that might improve process workflow?  I 
haven't messed with it yet, but I get the impression Google's Desktop Search 
will search email?  Stuff like that for Windows would be useful.  (This mail 
is all on IMAP, though.)

Thanks.

-- 

Jason Boxman
http://gohideaway.com/ - Vacation Rentals, Ruby-style