The GUI object customization is best configured if you generate a startup script and then use the saved .vbs file to launch UFT and set the configurations. They persist while UFT is open and apply to newly recorded scripts. The existing scripts would use the properties saved with the test (or a shared object repository). This is important to understand as chaning the object indentificatin properties won't affect objects that have already been learned and added to the object repository. The settings would apply to new objects learned through recording or added manually after the configuration change.

Another benefit to launching UFT with a generated script is that the script can be copied to other machines and UFT can then be launched via the .vbs script and have the same object identification set automatically for those machines. Again, this would apply to new tests that are created. The object repository properties would be used for playback regardless of the settings since those were saved outside of UFT.

https://admhelp.microfocus.com/uft/en/14.00/UFT_Help/Content/User_Guide/Gen_Auto_Script.htm

https://admhelp.microfocus.com/uft/en/14.00/UFT_Help/Content/User_Guide/z_Ch_AutoScriptsIntro.htm

https://admhelp.microfocus.com/uft/en/14.00/UFT_Help/Content/User_Guide/Sample_ObjID_Automation_Script.htm

Will this update the older scripts once the properties are changed and does this need to be done for each UFT instance?

The object repository properties are set at the time the object is first learned, either by recording or manually adding it, so it sets the properties and values to use for identifcation during playback in the object repository file. You can edit the existing properties for an object that has already been learned if necessary to change the object, and you can even add additional properties to an existing object in the repository if needed later to help the script playback successfully. The main thing to understand in how it all ties together is that the object repository is the 'master' set of properties used to find an object. It is used by the script or scripts for playback and will work even on UFT machines with different identification settings as those aren't used for playback...only script creation.

You can make the object properties in the object repository more flexible for different machines by using regular expressions for property values if necessary. This would accomodate instances where maybe part of a label or something changed for an object.