Windows Versions and Roaming Profiles

Windows 10 Roaming Profiles
 

Roaming Profiles Overview

What is a Roaming Profile

A roaming user profile is a concept in the Windows Operating systems that allows users with a domain-joined computer that allows the user to log on to any computer on the same network and access their documents and have a consistent desktop experience, such as applications remembering toolbar positions and preferences, or the desktop appearance staying the same.
 

Advantages

Roaming profiles copy the data from the c:\users\<username> folder onto the server on user logoff and back to the client computer on logon. This allows the user to logon to any computer and have a consistent desktop experience no matter which computer they logon to. This also allows the network administrators to back up the user’s data since it is stored in a central location. This makes for easier backups and allows the user to use multiple computers during their logon period without folder redirection as well the user is restricted to logon to only one computer (any computer in the domain at any one time or inconsistent behavior may surface.

 

Disadvantages

Downsides are since roaming profiles are a merge not a move process client machines can accumulate large numbers of old profiles. Server file transfer speed is optimized for the movement of large files. However, user profiles may contain lots of small files (cookies/favorites, recent items, etc. These files may not take up large amounts of space but in terms of performance opening/creating a file is one of the costliest of file operations.

The time required to open/create a file may vastly outweigh the time to transfer the file thus slowing the merge by 90% or more. In a business or a school environment where large numbers of users logon or logoff at the same time you will experience network congestion (AKA a boot storm)

Profile Versioning

Client operating system Server operating system profile Version
Windows 10        Windows Server Technical Preview                          v5
Windows 8.1      Windows Server 2012 R2                                             v4
Windows 8          Windows Server 2012                                                  v3
Windows 7          Windows Server 2008 R2                                            v2
Windows Vista  Windows Server 2008                                                   v1
 

Profile compatibility

Profiles are compatible only between the following client and server operating system pairs: The issues occur because the profile will contain values that are used differently between the versions of Windows. The user profile will be missing default profile configuration information that is expected by the operating system, and could contain unexpected values that are set by a different operating system version. Therefore, the operating system will not behave as expected. Additionally, profile corruption may occur.
 
This also applies to server operating systems as well.

For example, if you try to deploy Windows 10 in an environment that uses roaming, mandatory, super-mandatory, or domain default profiles in Windows 7, you experience the following behavior:

After you use a user account that has an existing Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 profile to log on to a Windows 10-based computer for the first time, a "v5" version of the profile is created.

By default, this feature is enabled in Windows 10 clients and uses a .V5 profile folder extension unless the feature is specially disabled. On older operating systems, the default was "v2" unless the hotfixes that are described in the following articles are applied and the steps that are mentioned in the articles are followed.

What applies to Roaming Profiles also is applicable to mandatory, super-mandatory and domain default user profiles
 

Mitigations

 

1. Use Folder Redirection in addition to roaming profiles to avoid the transfer of small files (favorites/cookies) and the larger files (video/music)
2. Keep separate versions of the roaming data for each operating version i.e.

\\server\profiles\%username%\profile\Win7
\\server\profiles$\%username%\profile\Win8
\\server\profiles$\%username%\profile\Win8.1
\\server\profiles$\%username%\Profile\Win10

You do this by using WMI Filtering
Windows 7 Client

SELECT version FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version LIKE “6.1%” and ProductType = “1″
                      

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Windows 8 Client

SELECT version FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version LIKE “6.2%” and ProductType = “1″
                      

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Windows 8.1 Client

SELECT version FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version LIKE “6.3%” and ProductType = “1″
                      

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Windows 10 Client

SELECT version FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version LIKE “10.0%” and ProductType = “1″
                      

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You create a gpo for each operating system version i.e. Windows 7
2 sections to edit
Under Environment create an environment variable with

1. Action: Create
2. System Variable
3. Name: OSVer
4. Value: Win7
   
   

Profile Path
\\server\profiles$\%username%\%osver%
 
If you use the following registry fix for client computers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlset\Services\ProfSvc\Parameters
new Dwdord
UserProfilePathExtensionVersion value 1
Or get the hotfix from Incompatibility between Windows 8 roaming user profiles and roaming profiles in other versions of Windows
Restart is required. Some people have stated that ending the userprofile with a \ will create the .v2/.v3,… automatically i.e. \\server\profiles\%username%\profile\

Sources:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2887239
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2013/07/31/roaming-profile-compatibility-the-windows-7-to-windows-8-challenge.aspx