Managing Roaming User Data Deployment Guide

Microsoft Corporation

Published: August 2006

Author: Mike Stephens

Editor: Craig Liebendorfer

Abstract

This guide shows IT administrators ways to implement Folder Redirection and roaming user profiles for Windows Vista, using their existing infrastructure. The guide includes a technical overview of the improvements to Folder Redirection and user profiles in Windows Vista. Provided scenarios show how to create new and manage existing Folder Redirection policies; prepare an existing infrastructure to use Windows Vista roaming, mandatory, and super mandatory user profiles; and allow users to share their roaming data between Windows Vista and Windows XP.

This document supports a preliminary release of a software product that may be changed substantially prior to final commercial release. This document is provided for informational purposes only and Microsoft makes no warranties, either express or implied, in this document. Information in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice. The entire risk of the use or the results from the use of this document remains with the user. Unless otherwise noted, the companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted in examples herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation.

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Contents

Managing Roaming User Data Deployment Guide              5

Technology Review              5

Windows Vista User Profiles              5

Windows Vista Folder Redirection              6

Roaming User Profiles              6

Compatibility with Application and User Profiles from Previous Versions of Windows              12

Folder Redirection in Windows Vista              13

Roaming User Data Scenarios              19

Scenario 1: Manage roaming data using Folder Redirection              20

Manage an existing Folder Redirection Policy              21

Scenario 2: Manage roaming data using Roaming and Mandatory Profiles              26

Preparing to use Roaming User Profiles              26

Roaming Profiles on a user account.              28

Mandatory Profiles              30

Super Mandatory Profiles              33

Scenario 3: Windows Vista and Windows XP Roaming User Profile Interoperability              33

Application Data              34

Desktop              35

Documents              35

Favorites              36

Music              37

Pictures              37

Start Menu              38

Videos              38

Summary              39

39

Managing Roaming User Data Deployment Guide            

Managing user data is a critical part of the business environment. Today, customers use a combination of desktop, laptops, and terminal services, challenging administrators to make user data available in a consistent way. Windows Vista™ provides the answer to challenges using roaming profiles and Folder Redirection to give users a consistent view as they roam. This guide covers using these new features to introduce Windows Vista in a Windows XP environment.

Technology Review

Windows Vista User Profiles

A user profile is a predetermined folder structure and accompanying registry data. Microsoft Windows uses the registry data to describe and preserve the user environment. The folder structure is storage for user and application data, specifically for an individual user. Windows stores the profile on the local hard drive, loads the profile when the user logs on, and unloads the profile when the user logs off. However, corporate environments have users who use different computers daily. Many users will switch from a desktop to a laptop while others will use desktops and Terminal Services. This situation creates a separation from the user and their data, as the user profile stays locally on each computer, creating a need for user data to roam with the user as they log on to different computers.

A roaming user profile is user data, stored in a specific folder structure, to follow users as they log on to and log off from different computers. Roaming user profiles are stored on a central server location. At log on, Windows copies the user profile from the central location to the local computer. When the user logs off, Windows copies changed user profile data from the client computer to the central storage location. This ensures that the client data follows users as they roam the environment.

Roaming user profiles solve part of the roaming problem, but it created added concerns. User profiles can increase in size, some as large as 20 megabytes or more. This increase causes delays in user logons, because it takes some time for Windows to copy the information to the local computer. Another concern with roaming user profiles is that they are saved only at logoff. Therefore, when a user logs on to one computer and changes data within their profile, the changes remain local and remain local until the user logs off, making real-time access to user data challenging in a roaming user environment. Folder Redirection reduces some of these problems.

Windows Vista Folder Redirection

Folder Redirection is a client side technology that provides an ability to change the target location of predetermined folders found within the user profile. This redirection is transparent to the user and gives the user a consistent way of saving their data, regardless of its storage location. Folder Redirection provides a way for administrators to divide user data from profile data. This division of user data decreases user logon times, and Windows downloads less data. Windows redirects the local folder to a central location, giving the user immediate access to their data when they save it, regardless of the computer they are using. This immediate access removes the need to update the user profile.

Folder Redirection helps with slow logons and missing data problems because Application Data, Desktop, My Documents, My Pictures, and Start Menu were the only folders supported by Folder Redirection in Windows XP. Folder Redirection did not include heavily used folders such as Favorites and Cookies. This kept the size of the user profile large enough to slow down logon performance. Also, synchronizing data in these folders still required a logoff.

Windows Vista has an improved roaming user experience leveraging changes in user profiles and Folder Redirection. The user profile folder structure or namespace has changed. Logically divided, the user profile namespace has a distinct separation between user and application data. Folder Redirection returns with the same behavior; however, now you can redirect 10 folders out of the user profile. Also, the new Folder Redirection Group Policy snap-in allows you to manage Folder Redirection policies for Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000. You can create the most efficient roaming user experience when you combine Folder Redirection and roaming user profiles.

Roaming User Profiles

New Folder Hierarchy (Namespace)

As mentioned previously, a user profile is a namespace of user specific folders isolated for user and application data. Previously, Windows stored user profiles in the root folder, Documents and Settings. This location has changed, as Windows Vista stores user profiles in a more intuitively named folder—the Users folder.

The names of the folders and their locations have changed under the profile. Previous versions of user profiles contained a complex folder structure, often including nested folders two and three layers deep. The new folder locations contain fewer nested folders to ease navigation and the new names are more intuitive to the data contained within them. The following table displays the name of the folder in Windows Vista and Windows XP. Additionally, the table shows the Windows XP folder locations.