kiedas28
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Roaming Profiles pros and cons
I need definitive answers to this question as I am dealing with a director that is not all there up top. She wants to be able to log in to any machine on her network and see the exact same thing as she sees on her desktop. I told her sure we can do this with roaming profiles but there will be several issues you will see...being: they are on a very slow network, have huge profiles (save a lot to their desktop), all machines on the network do not have the same software installed and they have three users (the director included) that work through Vpn at home or travel. Currently I have default profiles configured on the machine that includes shortcuts to the most commonly used software like office, email, etc. They have limited licenses sometimes even just one for certain pricey software so it is installed on only one machine. I have a little experience using roaming profiles and I noticed several problems when the machine configuration (software installed) wasn't the same between machines they logged into. Based on what I have listed here can anyone give me the pros and cons of setting up roaming profiles?
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Terminal Services is a good option. Also a long term suggestion is to determine exactly what she really wants to be able to. Her first answer will be "I thought I already told you that - I want to see the exact thing...."
Dig deeper - why does she roam to various computers? Does she have tools and programs that she wants to use wherever she goes? The trouble with that is if the applications aren't installed everywhere, and if she is an IT Director, then dear Lord, some of the applications she might use have no business being installed everywhere!
Perhaps what you need is a single Administrative system that has all tools required and she can Remote Desktop to that from any computer.
Or perhaps she is talking about her documents. Start looking at Microsoft SharePoint Services (especially Portal Server - Portal isn't free but it is sweet) - you can move important files to a web based environment and depending on the tools and your companies development capabilites, everything she needs to do could be provided via the Sharepoint site.
The main point is get to the root of the what she really is wanting and find a solution to that - don't just fix her symptom.
Dig deeper - why does she roam to various computers? Does she have tools and programs that she wants to use wherever she goes? The trouble with that is if the applications aren't installed everywhere, and if she is an IT Director, then dear Lord, some of the applications she might use have no business being installed everywhere!
Perhaps what you need is a single Administrative system that has all tools required and she can Remote Desktop to that from any computer.
Or perhaps she is talking about her documents. Start looking at Microsoft SharePoint Services (especially Portal Server - Portal isn't free but it is sweet) - you can move important files to a web based environment and depending on the tools and your companies development capabilites, everything she needs to do could be provided via the Sharepoint site.
The main point is get to the root of the what she really is wanting and find a solution to that - don't just fix her symptom.
ASKER
banks1850 I really like your list one question for you. I was reading about the cached profile on the local machine I am wondering about that a little bit is that cached and then removed? So when the director tries to log in locally to her laptop from home she won't have that profile anymore?
ahh, no I it keeps it, It actually stores it locally like any other profile, but updates when it detects that is on the domain. It can be corrupted quite easily though. If your direct logs in from home she will see it, just any of the icons on the desktop (or file shares) that access your domain resources will be unavailable until you use the vpn to connect (assuming your vpn puts you on a subnet that lets you use the domain resources).
ASKER
Thank you banks1850. I am awarding you points because you gave me exactly what I was looking for.
Very welcome, glad I could help. :)
You get your custom desktop wherever you log on
Desktop settings are preserved even if local computer fails
Cons
Can slow down logon significantly
Requires space on the server