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Folder Redirectoin Vs. Roaming Profiles
Hi All,
If you set up folder redirection for the desktop, Application data, My Documents, and the Start Menu to use a mapped network folder, how is this different that using a roaming profile?
Scott
If you set up folder redirection for the desktop, Application data, My Documents, and the Start Menu to use a mapped network folder, how is this different that using a roaming profile?
Scott
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The Folder Redirection feature of IntelliMirror allows an administrator to redirect the location of certain folders in the user profile to a network location. When these redirected folders are accessed either by the operating system or by applications, the operating system automatically redirects to the location on a network share specified by the administrator. From a user perspective, this is similar to the roaming scenario because users have the same settings regardless of which computers they use. However unlike roaming, these settings actually remain on the network share. Folder redirection can be used with all types of user profiles: local, roaming, or mandatory.
Using Folder Redirection with local profiles can provide some of the benefits of roaming profiles (such as having a users data available at any computer or maintaining data on the server) without the need to implement roaming profiles. Remember though, using Folder Redirection with a local profile would only result in the users documents and files being available from all computers. To have settings and configurations move with the user, you would need to use roaming profiles.
Combining Folder Redirection with roaming profiles gives the benefit of roaming profiles, while minimizing network traffic caused by synchronization of the profile.
Folder redirection is accomplished using Group Policy. The use of Folder Redirection with roaming profiles is discussed later in this article.
Table 2 below lists the folders that roam with the profile by default and indicates whether they can be redirected using Group Policy.
Table 2 Folders that Roam with the Profile
Folder Name Description Roams with profile by default Redirect with Group Policy
Application Data
Per-user roaming application data.
Yes
Yes
Cookies
Users Internet Explorer cookies.
Yes
No
Desktop
Desktop items, including files and shortcuts.
Yes
Yes
Favorites
Users Internet Explorer favorites.
Yes
No
Local Settings
Temporary files and per-user non-roaming application data.
No
No
My Documents
Users documents.
Yes
Yes
NetHood
Shortcuts to Network Neighborhood items.
Yes
No
PrintHood
Shortcuts to printer folder items.
Yes
No
Recent
Shortcuts to recently used documents
Yes
No
Send To
Shortcuts to document storage locations and applications.
Yes
No
Start Menu
Users personal start menu.
Yes
Yes
Templates
Per-user customized templates.
Yes
No
Non-Roaming Folders
The default behavior of roaming user profiles in Windows NT 4.0 is to include all the folders in the user profile directory. Thus when a user first logs on, all folders within the profile folder are copied from the server to the client at logon and copied back at logoff,
Windows 2000 introduced a per-user local settings folder into the user profile that is not copied during log on or logoff. This folder is intended for the storage of operating system components and other applications can store non-roaming per-user data. A typical example of the usage of this folder is for Microsoft Internet Explorer to store a users Favorites in the roaming portion of the user profile but store the Temporary Internet Files in the local (non-roaming) portion of the user profile. This will allow a user to retain access to their favorite URLs, but will save copying of temporary cache files at logon and logoff.
On computers running Windows Server 2003, Windows XP or Windows 2000, the History, Local Settings, Temp and Temporary Internet Files folders do not roam by default. Other Non-Roaming Folders are configured using the Group Policy Editor. The path for this setting in the Group Policy name space is:
User Configuration\Administrati
Once enabled this allows multiple folder names to be defined, all relative to the root of the users profile. Once included in the policy these folders will not be copied to the local machine at logon, nor copied back to the server at logoff. This setting is likely to result in decreased time taken for a user to logon, by restricting the amount of data within a user profile that really does roam with the user.
How Do Users Get Their Profile?
The way in which users get their profiles depends on the type of profile they're configured to use. This section describes this process.
Local Profile - New User
1.
The user logs on.
2.
The operating system checks the list of user profiles located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWAR
3.
Because this is a new user, no local profile is found. If the computer is part of a domain, the operating system checks if a domain wide default profile exists in a folder named Default User on the domain controllers NETLOGON share.
• If a domain wide profile exists, it is copied to a subfolder on the local computer with the username under %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\. For example, a new user with the username JDoe would have a profile created in %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\JDoe.
• If a default domain profile does not exist, then the local default profile is copied from the %Systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Default User folder to a subfolder on the local computer with a username under %Systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\.
4.
If the computer is not part of a domain, the local default profile is copied from the %Systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Default User folder to a subfolder on the local computer with a username under %Systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\.
5.
The users registry hive (NTUSER.DAT) is mapped to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER portion of the registry.
6.
The users %userprofile% environment variable is updated with the value of the local profile folder
7.
When the user logs off, a profile is saved to the local hard disk of the computer.
Local Profile - Existing User
1.
The user logs on.
2.
Windows checks the list of user profiles located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWAR
3.
The users registry hive (NTUSER.DAT) is mapped to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER portion of the registry.
4.
The users %userprofile% environment variable is updated with the value of the local profile folder.
5.
When the user logs off, the profile is saved to the local hard disk of the computer.
Roaming Profile - New User
1.
The user logs on.
2.
The path to the users roaming profile is retrieved from the user object on the Domain Controller.
3.
Windows checks to see if a profile exists in the roaming path, if no profile exists a folder is created.
4.
Windows checks the list of user profiles located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWAR
• If a domain wide profile exists, it is copied to a subfolder on the local computer with their username under %Systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\.
• If a default domain profile does not exist, then the local default profile is copied from the %Systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\Default User folder to a subfolder on the local computer with their username under %Systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\.
5.
The users registry hive (NTUSER.DAT) is mapped to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER portion of the registry.
6.
The users %userprofile% environment variable is updated with the value of the local profile folder
7.
The user can then run applications and edit documents as normal. When the user logs off, their local profile is copied to the path configured by the administrator. If a profile already exists on the server, the local profile is merged with the server copy (see merge algorithm later in this paper for more details).
Roaming Profile - Existing User
1.
The user logs on.
2.
The path to the users roaming profile is retrieved from the user object on the Domain Controller.
3.
Windows checks to see if a profile exists in the roaming path, if no profile exists a folder is created.
4.
Windows checks the list of user profiles located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWAR
5.
The contents of the local cached profile are compared with the copy of the profile on the server, and the two profiles are merged. (See the new merge algorithm later in this paper for more details).
6.
The users registry hive (NTUSER.DAT) is mapped to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER portion of the registry.
7.
The users %userprofile% environment variable is updated with the value of the local profile folder
8.
The user can then run applications and edit documents as normal. When the user logs off, the local profile is copied to the path configured by the administrator. If a profile already exists on the server, the local profile is merged with the server copy.