changing of default settings

[RogerLingg]

Hi OBS Team

Is there a way to change the default settings of OBS Studio? I only can find how to recover to the default settings. What I like to do is, changing the default settings of OBS. That means, doesn't matter which user is logging in and open OBS Studio, it takes the settings I created and copy it to AppData\Roaming\obs-studio. We have for a setup always the same settings, Profile and Scene Collection but many users logging in. I don't want to copy does settings for all users, as there will be many new users all the time.

Many thanks already for your help

Roger

 

[koala]

You want to distribute files in addition to some software. This is a generic standard task for software distribution systems in organizations.
If your machines are all in Active Directory, you can use Group Policies to distribute software and settings.
If your machines are all standalone, I recommend you create a software distribution package that contains your customized configuration files and copy these with package-specific means to AppData\Roaming\obs-studio. In this case, your users first download and install that package and after that the OBS Studio installer itself. You can also use the installer of your customized software distribution package to download the OBS Studio installer and install it silently, then copy the customized files. In this case, you need to install only one package.
OBS Studio is installed silently with the /S switch (capital S).

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Roger
I too need to set this up, just haven't gotten around to setting it up / researching how to have all OBS user logons for a single computer share the same OBS settings

As you appear to be talking about a single streaming PC, have you considered simply creating a folder re-direction/junction [forget exact term] (and associated NTFS permission adjustments), so that every user's \AppData folder (settings) for OBS points to same folder. Then you have nothing to move around (it gets a little trickier [but doable] if you want to edit the Default User profile such that any new/future login inherits the same re-direct). What would be easier is a script which makes the change. And a process that says when a new user logons on for first time, an Admin script needs to be run to set the re-direct [no NTFS permission change needed if original folder give all users Full Control]

 

[koala]

You don't share configuration data between different users on the same machine. You simply don't do this.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

You don't share configuration data between different users on the same machine. You simply don't do this.

I get why you'd say that. HOWEVER, that is exactly what would be desired in the following scenario
- House of Worship, with largely non-technical volunteers to run OBS stream for a service
- Now you could use shared login to a single user/profile, but of course that is a (really) bad idea
- so separate OS logins are useful / desired
- BUT all users should share EXACT same OBS config (obviously with a way to back/recover in case of user error)

It occurred to me after my post is there alternative (used for domain migrations, manufacturing floor setup, and elsewhere), with a registry edit to have multiple users share a \userprofile <dir> in its entirety [also have to use Regedt32 to adjust permissions in NTUSER.dat, ..iirc...been many years and pre Win10 since I last used this technique)

So, again, I get why in general sharing OBS config data would be a bad idea, but I have a scenario where that is EXACTLY what a group of users would want/need
- either that or a clean/reliable way for User A to make changes to OBS, and possible other things, like in our case PPTx windows slide show position, and then save those settings such that the next user can utilize those exact settings. OBS settings, I'm guessing would be too hard to share. But something like a Windowed screen capture position?
The more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to a shared WinOS user profile w/ separate login (as the idea of sharing password for a single account seem the worse option)
But I haven't dug into this too deeply yet (and as such, I'm a single point of failure in our service streaming). So getting to point where much less knowledgeable people can run streaming computer with some guardrails (ie user account is NOT local admin) to prevent standard PEBKAC issues.... work in progress... suggestions/pointer welcome

 

[koala]

If you start to share data between users in a way not understandable by the users, and creating a junction between some internal profile directories isn't understandable by users, your configuration becomes unmanageable and app behavior unpredictable. If one user changes something in OBS, it is reflected for all other users as well. That means having different users doesn't have any meaning any more. Some morning a user logs in to his own account but finds his OBS configuration messed up. This is what will happen sooner or later.

Managed machines usually have login scripts or schedules tasks that run at login. Batch files running at user login. If you aren't able to create a software package with the desired configuration, you can use such a task or login script to copy a prepared default configuration from a central directory to the local appdata directory.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

I completely get your point (and I just noticed some of my typos above that would cause confusion.. my apologies (like 'would' instead of intended 'wouldn't'... joy of current heat wave and no A/C as so rarely needed... anyway, I digress)

In our case, most users won't be making ANY changes, only running a live stream that was largely pre-configured. So OBS config is NOT the concern. at all. I understand point of saying different users wouldn't have meaning... but actually it would, as Event Logging who show logged in, and NFTS file log tracking would help identify/troubleshoot issues, vs a shared user account and you have NO idea whose been told the password, and who logged in, did what on the PC (OBS least of concern/issue). In a HoW streaming setup for a relatively small congregation, going for KISS, the option is sharing a single user login (and all the risk that entails, ESPECIALLY if that account has local admin, which is an even worse situation), or some setup with a shared OBS config (however accomplished) but separate OS login.

A shared OS login is truly unmanageable [impossible in our setting]. A shared user login = 0 security, vs challenge of managing/sharing an OBS config; which would be orders of magnitude much easier to deal with in the overall scheme of things. Having to manually replicate OBS settings (which would be desired state 99.9%+ of the time) across users seems silly, and error-prone. The only person who would want a unique setting (for ex, for testing) would be someone like me, who would know how to set up/save settings. ALL of the other users (volunteers) would simply want the OBS (and most other) settings left for them. [most won't understand OBS to begin, in any depth, and would want things made easy for them]
In our scenario, OBS overall settings don't change.. other than stream key per stream session. A new week brings simple changes where we update Sources with current weeks' videos, and resize/reframe/crop those videos [literally just update Source to point to new video, reset Transform, etc]. And then the number of videos/scenes will vary ever so slightly if we add an extra announcement, or a postlude, or similar [and update our automation with Advanced Scene Switcher].

So,
- so from a security, manageability, least privileged, perspective, a shared user account is a non-starter (something I'm unlikely to consider seriously, based on decades of experience)
- leaving how to have User A make changes to OBS settings and intentionally ensure other users on same PC get same settings

 

[andrmath]

Hello Lawrence_SoCal. I don't know if you've maybe found a solution already, but I've got the exact same scenario in our church. I've now got an initial set of good, working parameters for our church stream on my laptop (2nd ever church service streaming coming up this weekend) and I need to share the OBS settings somehow with colleagues. At the same timeI don't want to share my personal login details with them plus they'll need to use an alternative machine when I'm not around.

I haven't done this yet, but I plan to export all the scene settings to a folder locally from within OBS (Profile|[Export/Export] & Scene collection|[Import/Export) where others can access them and pull them in as necessary. Using a cloud share is an obvious option as well of course. I hope this helps.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

I haven't done this yet, but I plan to export all the scene settings to a folder locally from within OBS (Profile|[Export/Export] & Scene collection|[Import/Export) where others can access them and pull them in as necessary. Using a cloud share is an obvious option as well of course. I hope this helps.

No, no solution found/implemented yet
Fortunately for us, we bought a dedicated computer for this streaming [now going on 6 months to replace my borrowed work system]. One thing that is often a challenge is upload bandwidth (so many carriers limited upstream), so avoiding Internet connectivity for content during a service seems like a good idea. But in terms of importing settings from cloud on a multi PC scenario...sure... and files (would need to save files in common folder structure.. so couldn't be \users\{name}\documents\streaming [or whatever]. I had thought about scripting copying OBS settings between profiles... but for streaming from a single PC by different users on different weekends, all wanting to use essentially same settings, and being prevented from screwing stuff up... pointing \AppData\OBS settings to common folder, or other similar approach seems desirable/less error prone ... but at this point, there are only 2 of us (and I'm always there, so far), so we are sharing a local account/password ... for now. This weekend, I'm removing local admin rights from the account being used/shared. As I have lots of resource headroom, I'm hoping OBS stream won't have an issue not being an admin... I'll test of course.

 

[Software Packager]

As a software packager for a large public sector organisation responsible for deploying software to 10,000 users I have a different point of view.

If we are broadcasting a live stream of a council meeting, then for obvious reasons we would want the stream to have our standard corporate branding, and for every broadcast to have the same look and feel regardless of who is logged on and what ever computer is doing the broadcast.

The issue I always come across with virtually every bit software is that "auto check for updates" Is ticked by default, please don't get me wrong I understand the need to update software, but why do developers always make this a per user setting? you either want it to notify every user OR no users, I can't see any reason you would want to notify "some" users, in my case I have to disable this as users don't have the ability to install/upgrade software and I just don't have the time to upgrade every piece of software to every new version.

Please consider creating a "default" OBS Studio profile under programdata that allows customization and possibly a setting that makes the default settings mandatory.

Either way I now have to script our required settings!

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

As an Enterprise Architect for a 60K+ worldwide organization, I understand your point.
On the other hand, you aren't deploying OBS to that many machines. I suspect you will have a handful or less PCs per site configured to stream from OBS. In my world, software with such low volume deployment didn't justify a scripted install
Though, I'd certainly appreciate support for something other than the user focus currently part of the OBS design approach, to be supportive of basic least-privilege approach to PC security