Roaming / MAN Profiles..

[Grommit]

Hi

 

If I make up a roaming profile for one user.. copy the profile to tthe server.. then point all the other users to the profile..

 

Will it load each users Outlook 2003 OK ? Or do I have to make a roaming / MAN profile for each user ?

[srochford]

Make sure that Outlook isn't configured as part of the mandatory profile or default roaming profile and it will then configure on first run.

[Grommit]

Make sure that Outlook isn't configured as part of the mandatory profile or default roaming profile and it will then configure on first run.

 

Just to get this clear..

 

if I log on as a user... and log off

 

Copy the profile to the server

 

Map all other users profile in AD to this profile on the server..

 

Then all users will get thier own Outlook settings correctly ?

[bishopsgarthstockton]

Make sure that Outlook isn't configured as part of the mandatory profile or default roaming profile and it will then configure on first run.

 

But then the settings will not save because you are using a man profile.

[Grommit]

Make sure that Outlook isn't configured as part of the mandatory profile or default roaming profile and it will then configure on first run.

 

But then the settings will not save because you are using a man profile.

 

I want to use roaming profiles as Ranger will take care of the rest....

 

Will all users be configured in Outlook from 1 users roaming profile ?

[srochford]

Make sure that Outlook isn't configured as part of the mandatory profile or default roaming profile and it will then configure on first run.

 

But then the settings will not save because you are using a man profile.

 

Err; surely that's the whole point of a mandatory profile - users' can't change anything permanently or mess things up. It doesn't matter because Outlook will just reconfigure on next run.

[moiebus]

You should be able to use the Man profile and folder redirection via group policy(to each user area) to have the best of both worlds. Our school does it with favorites and certain parts of application data.

[maniac]

To run the full version of outlook sucessfully with a mandatory profile you will need an outlook profile generator. This generates the users outlook profile at logon or at outlook startup. Unfortunitely I can't remember the name of the one I used on my previous network (we have webmail at my current school, so no need for it) It's much more efficient that the person having to follow the setup wizard everytime they run outlook when they logon. However;

 

The easiest option is to use Outlook Web Access built into exchange (providing you are running exchange as your mail backend of course) which by default automatically authenticates network users straight to their inbox. The latest versions are very usable as mail clients and more.

 

hope that helps,

 

Mike.

[Grommit]

To run the full version of outlook sucessfully with a mandatory profile you will need an outlook profile generator. This generates the users outlook profile at logon or at outlook startup. Unfortunitely I can't remember the name of the one I used on my previous network (we have webmail at my current school, so no need for it) It's much more efficient that the person having to follow the setup wizard everytime they run outlook when they logon. However;

 

The easiest option is to use Outlook Web Access built into exchange (providing you are running exchange as your mail backend of course) which by default automatically authenticates network users straight to their inbox. The latest versions are very usable as mail clients and more.

 

hope that helps,

 

Mike.

 

Hi

 

Yes we have Exchange and the staff can use OWA.. but they don't like it... It also doesn't have the global address list..

 

What I want is a simple way of getting the users to use Outlook 2003.. and they all haver local profiles and I wanted a siple way of getting a configuration to Outlook..

 

We have Exchange 2003 on a Server 2000 Box and Outlook 2003... we are also having issues with Outlook 2007 as it does't see the exchange server.. ?

[srochford]

When you first setup the MSI for Office 2003 you need to create a transform which specifies that you want Outlook to use Exchange server. You give it the name of the Exchange server and the way the mailbox name can be identified (typically just "username") - that way, when Outlook runs for the first time (which is basically every time with a mandatory profile) it will configure itself properly.

 

If you didn't do that then it's a bit more difficult but not impossible. You need to make Outlook start using a command line ending with /importprf prffilename (the prffilename can be on a network share)

 

(http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/outlook/HP010031101033.aspx has more details of the command line switches)

 

The prf file is plain text but it's easiest to create it with the custom installation wizard - details at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ork2003/HA011402581033.aspx

 

The downside of doing this is that you can't change the desktop icon; it's not a standard shortcut. There are various ways round this. My preferred solution is to remove the desktop icon altogether and show people how to use quick launch or start menu icons.

 

What you mustn't do is run Outlook and use those settings as the mandatory profile - everyone who gets that will try and open your mailbox and fail; not good :-(

 

The profile data is stored in the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles; it's not easy to make sense of!

[zag]

Also outlook 2007 automatically finds the right profile.