Help? Desktop launchers

["Bernhard, Jeff" <jeff bernhard ccur com>]

Greetings.

I'd like to add to the default set of desktop launchers on our systems, and
am new to gnome and how these are established for new users on their first
login. I do not by choice want to have to add these additional desktop
launchers downstream, after a user's gnome environment has already been
first established (although knowing how this would be done -- without that
user's intervention -- would be useful for pre-existing users, so let's
include this as well).

Any hints, observations and suggestions appreciated!

Questions:

How during a user's first session is the gnome environment set up -- what
starts the ball rolling? Who creates the various directories and files?