Avatar of Laszlo Denes
Laszlo DenesFlag for Canada

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Folder redirection GPO W 10 for users into their home directory on DFS share!

Hello Everyone and thank you very much in advance for your input.
I have been banging my head on the wall for a few days now trying to figure this out.
I would like to redirect all user items that are stored locally on Windows 10 to a network share.
I do have the Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos redirected on W7 and it works and that part seems to be okay on W 10 as well (see further down)
We are currently on W7 and use roaming profiles with a DFS namespace, but going to Windows 10 and will be eliminating the roaming profiles.

So our users (under their AD profiles) have an H: drive configured for their home folder and it goes to
\\DFS namespace\users\username\data
and for the time being (until we get rid of roaming profiles) a profile path under their AD profiles that points to
\\DFS namespace\users\username\profile
Thus all users currently have two folders under \\DFS namespace\users\username\ specifically the one noted above as home folder and their roaming profile.
Users  --> username --> profile
                                       data

Under GPO User Configuration --> Windows Settings --> Folder Redirection
I can get the Documents to redirect (see screenshot) because it can be set to target the home directory
User generated imageand the same is true for the Pictures, Music, Video folders since they have the option to "Follow the Document's Folder" (same as W7)
BUT
how do I redirect the Desktop (so if users save to it then it is saved to the network), Favorites (IE and Edge), Contacts and possibly Downloads to the same location, i.e. not in the profile.V6 (the profile) folder, but their home folder (data).
I tried this for desktop and it worked,
User generated imagebut it put it under the profile and not the data folder
User generated imageSurely there must be a way to redirect all of them to the same location.
Really appreciate insights from those that have managed to get this done with concrete examples, i.e. what was the path and the options used please.
Many thanks in advance.
Windows 10Windows OSActive Directory

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arnold
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David Johnson, CD
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don't use the redirect to users home directory.
Avatar of Laszlo Denes
Laszlo Denes
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ASKER

LMAO... excellent David - made me smile.

Now let's try that again, because obviously this is not something I am deciding on my own, but rather it has been mandated. So back to the original question.
Do you want a common desktop across all machines? or do you want the user to have their own desktop that follows them?
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Laszlo Denes
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ASKER

Each user should have all the items (including desktop) save to their DFS share home directory folder that is mapped as H: in their AD profile. :-)
So whether they saved something on the W10 on the desktop, in the local my documents, video, music, picture folder or even an IE or Edge favorite... they should all be saved (when the user logs off) on the network. The intent is to make sure they do not lose information when we remove roaming user profiles since they obviously save to the network in the same/similar manner. Thanks a bunch :-)
Again don't use the home folder location for the desktop use the same location you use for documents
Avatar of Laszlo Denes
Laszlo Denes
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ASKER

that is what I am trying to do... please see my screenshots... documents goes to home folder... music, video and pictures follows documents... no such option for other items
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arnold
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the issue you are running into

To maintain uniformity, commonly you shoukd have two distinct shares
One deals with userfolders and that is commonly what the user homedir is
\\dfs\userfolders\%username% as H:
With
Appsata
Desktop
Downloads
Favorites
Documents
Start menu
....

The profile destination, should be completely different.


Make sure to set the folder refirect GPO to copy data back when the user falls out of gpo's coverage.
The reason is folder refirect only applies once on the default locations (folders within the profile)
Since you are using dfs, it does not really an issue for you. Is more for those who use server shares, that would need to transition from one server to another during upgrade cycle.
Avatar of Laszlo Denes
Laszlo Denes
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ASKER

Arnold -
Ignore the profile folder under the username because we are moving away from roaming and then it will be gone...
How do I redirect all the folders you mentioned to h: (see below) because the documents has the option to "Redirect to the users home directory" and that worked, pictures/music/video all have the option to "follow the documents folder" and that works, but what settings and/or path do I need to specify to redirect downloads, favorites, desktop, contacts, etc. to the same H: home directory... THAT is exactly what I am struggling with...

 \\dfs\userfolders\%username% as H:
 With
 Appsata
 Desktop
 Downloads
 Favorites
 Documents
 Start menu
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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arnold
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