Help: Setting default multimedia handlers?

[Dan McGarry]

Sorry, this question is a little off-topic for this list, but desperate 
times call for desperate measures. 8^)

In a few days' time, a major partner of an NGO I work for is going to 
come and visit. They've partnered on a project to create a film about 
HIV and AIDS, and to accompany the DVD with a multi-media CD-ROM which 
provides a really fantastic collection of supporting materials. This CD 
is for use in schools and aimed at youth in general, and is being 
distributed throughout the Pacific Islands region.

I've copied the material onto our local web server, in order that it can 
be accessed by all the computers on the center. It's done in FrontPage 
(feh), but at least all the links are relative, so that was a fairly 
straightforward task.

The material is great, but unfortunately it's designed to run on Windows 
XP with MS Office installed. Having dealt with OS-centric file format 
problems for quite a while now, I'm familiar with how to install 
appropriate codecs, libraries and applications to cope with other 
people's short-sightedness. 8^)

I've worked out which applications will work best with the material on 
this CD-ROM, and I've determined how to configure an individual 
GNOME/Nautilus profile so that a user can click on any link and the 
appropriate action happens (e.g. movie clips and wma files open in 
mplayer). There's one issue that I still have to deal with. though:

We have a youth centre here with 6 Ubuntu Breezy computers providing 
almost 400 users with individual accounts. The vast majority of these 
young people are school leavers with low literacy levels. I need a way 
to quickly and easily set the global defaults for all of these users in 
order that any one of them can access the items on this website and have 
it Just Work.

I'd like to be able to set system-wide defaults that override current 
individual settings. Normally I'd just dig through the bits and pieces 
of info scattered all over the 'Net until I have what I need, but 
unfortunately the Internet service here consists of 14 computers all 
sharing a single dial-up line(!), so that's not really an option given 
the time constraints.

My request, then, is can folks offer some insight into the best way to 
approach this problem, both in the generic and specific:

1) How do I set mplayer to be the system-wide default handler for .wma 
and .wmv without walking through every single user account and changing 
the settings?

2) This kind of thing is going to come up on a regular basis, so: Can 
anyone suggest any useful tools and/or approaches to handling 
configuration changes to hundreds of user accounts simultaneously?

'Write a script' is a perfectly acceptable answer, provided it comes 
with some suggestions concerning which tools to use. 8^)

One note about local resources: We're a very small NGO providing 
services to over 3000 local youths on a total annual budget of AUD 
15,000. Our machines are typically donated, second-hand PCs about 5-8 
years old.

I'll happily distill the responses, factor in my own experience and 
return a little documentation to the community if people think this 
would be useful.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the slightly off-base question. 
Unfortunately, I just don't have the time or resources right now to find 
a more appropriate place.... 8^/

-- 
Dan McGarry		it.psl at fsp.org.vu

IT Consultant
Community Communications Project