Lots of My Documents in Share Gotcha - More Help Needed

[Andie]

Please can someone give me a bit more help with this tip that is in the Windows 7 Gotchas Sticky:

 

When viewing redirected folders share you may see many "My Documents"

 

When Windows sets up a new redirected My Documents it creates a hidden desktop.ini file which means that when you browse the share/location from Windows you may see a huge amount of folders called "My Documents"/"Documents" rather then the folder name it should be (e.g. \\server\share\username as the path could look like \\server\share\documents)

The folders are correctly named but when Windows sees the existance of the hidden desktop.ini in each directory it displays the folder as "My Documents"/"Documents" rather then the real folder name. This can happen with any special folder I believe such as Favourites.

 

The solution:

Remove the desktop.ini file in each my docs redirected folder. This can be done with script or using Group Policy Preferences. You can also redirect to a sub folder which hides the issue (e.g. redirect to \\server\share\username\documents\)

 

I am currently using Windows Server 2003 and have mixed clients XP and Win 7. Where a user is new and first logs in on Win 7, the redirected folder is correctly named with the username in the share. The problem for me has started with a user that has been upgraded from XP to Win 7. Their share folder has been renamed My Documents in the share. Obviously if that happens to everyone, it will be a real nuisance to identify whose folder is whose. The redirected folder also seems to contain another My Documents folder. I have tried deleting the desktop.ini in the top level My Documents, but it looks like it changes back to being called My Documents again when the user logs in next time.

 

What am I doing wrong? Do I need to remove all instances of desktop.ini at all levels within the folder?

[sted]

the best solution is to redirect their my docs to a my docs folder in their user area so say u:\my documents\word.doc but that can be a royal pita for existing users but its something id do for new ones. the easier "fix" is to use file server resource manager and dissalow anyone saving a file called desktop ini in your user folder (so d:\users or whatever) then do a search and delete of existing desktop.ini files

[RTFM]

You can add a column in explorer called 'filename' which ignores the my documents and will display the actual folder name.

 

Short term solution

[cullingsh]

We stopped the desktop.ini file from being created (I think we did this by file screening - might not be available on server 2003 though?), did a search of the home directories on the server for desktop.ini and deleted them all.

[Michael]

Do as RTFM suggests, or as I have previously written. I can't search as Edugeek's search is temporarily offline.

 

I wouldn't recommend messing with ini files, as this can slow down logon speeds. Plus you'll be forever going round in circles as Windows will re-create them!

[denon101]

I deleted the desktop.ini files and then used File Server Resource Manager to create a rule to stop them being recreated. This works fine for us, there is no noticeable difference in logon speeds.

[Gatt]

You don't need to delete the desktop.ini file at all - ther is a GPO to stop this behaviour

Been a while since I had to set it so will need to go off and find it now - though it'll be on here somewhere..

[Gatt]

Here we go:

 

It's in two places so not sure which is which:

 

Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Folder Redirection

or

User Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Folder Redirection

 

The setting is

 

Use localized subfolder names when redirecting Start Menu and My Documents

 

And should be Disabled

[Andie]

You can add a column in explorer called 'filename' which ignores the my documents and will display the actual folder name.

 

Short term solution

 

Simple but brilliant! Thanks so much! Was a bit anxious about fiddling with system file deletes, although others have done it fine.

[Andie]

Here we go:

 

It's in two places so not sure which is which:

 

Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Folder Redirection

or

User Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Folder Redirection

 

The setting is

 

Use localized subfolder names when redirecting Start Menu and My Documents

 

And should be Disabled

 

I have set this to Disabled in User Config, as that is where my folder redirection is set up. I shall feed back on the effects so that anyone else looking at this thread will know what to do as well.

[Andie]

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to help. Edugeeks are amazing!

[Andie]

I have set this to Disabled in User Config, as that is where my folder redirection is set up. I shall feed back on the effects so that anyone else looking at this thread will know what to do as well.

 

The test did not go well, but I don't think it's necessarily the fault of this policy. Maybe I have something else set wrong somewhere. The policy on test resulted in the user not being able to access any of the Documents folders at all. I've done something wrong with permissions somewhere..... Will feed back at some future point when I've worked out what is going on.

[Gatt]

Are the Desktop.ini files still in place?

It may be that thye need to be deleted for it to take effect

It's been a long time since I dealt with this issue specifically that I cannto recall exactly what I had to do...

[Andie]

The test did not go well, but I don't think it's necessarily the fault of this policy. Maybe I have something else set wrong somewhere. The policy on test resulted in the user not being able to access any of the Documents folders at all. I've done something wrong with permissions somewhere..... Will feed back at some future point when I've worked out what is going on.

@Gatt, I started with a clean user as a test - not logged in and with no folder in the share. It looks like it is a problem with the clean user login not being able to carry out the folder and start menu redirection, not the policy you gave me as i have removed that policy and it is still not redirecting start menu and folders.... I guess I must have been working with existing users up till now, although i didn't think that was the case, and I've now uncovered a new problem. No doubt your policy will do what I need it to do once I've fixed the other issue. Meanwhile, back to the drawing board....

[ozydave]

We stopped the desktop.ini file from being created (I think we did this by file screening - might not be available on server 2003 though?), did a search of the home directories on the server for desktop.ini and deleted them all.

 

Ditto here

[Andie]

I got into a bit of a mess trying out @Gatt's GP setting for sorting out the multiple My Documents issue. Stupid idea to try a fresh user as the issue was coming from existing users.

 

Anyway, I've managed to set up a safe and proper test for the policy with a user migrated from XP to Win 7 client. My Documents was renamed in share from username to My Documents. I applied the GPO and nothing seems to have changed in the share however. Possibly, as @Gatt said, I need to remove the desktop.ini files and then the policy will prevent the folder being renamed each time the user logs in on Win 7.

 

Due to further investigation, I have also found that, in my setup at least , connecting home folder to \\servername\sharename\%username%\My Documents (in the user account profile tab) works and means that the user doesn't get the share folder renamed. It seems to work fine with user logged in to both XP and Win 7.

 

No doubt a lot of what I do is bad practice, due to self-teaching. Migration to Server 2012 planned, with expert installation, and hopefully this will get me a properly functional setup!