Stop local account being created each time user logs into a computer for first time

[Dgarcia15]

Hello,

 

I am wondering if it is possible to not have a local account be created for a user each time they log into a computer for the first time. For example, when a user logs into a computer for the very first time it says preparing desktop, is there any way to prevent that ?

 

Thank you.

[fairm010]

You need a local profile on a machine in order for it to function. What are you trying to achieve?

[Dgarcia15]

Is there anyway to have it just use a default profile but still be able to keep unique logins, since everythything is redirected to the sever share anyway? I have about 600 users (students) and they are always using different computers, when logging in for the very first time it can take a while to create that profile.

[Cache]

You might want to look at trying to create a small mandatory profile and seeing if that helps matters?

[Dgarcia15]

So this will force whoever logs in to use this profile instead of creating one for each user? Will it still redirect their folders? for example the documents folder to their network share? Edited April 28, 2014 by Dgarcia15

[fairm010]

I use Mandatory profiles here but a local copy is still created at login. When they log off delprof2 deletes it. All of their Desktop, My docs etc are redirected.

[Byford-Rew]

Which server OS are you using? There are Group Policy settings which can be applied to the local computer to prevent profile bloat at log off. Also check out the 'exclude from profile' group policy settings as there are MANY files in group policies which don't need to be there as they are copied from the local machine at login if they are missing / required which is much faster than moving them around at login. This link will help here:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814592 doing this and folder redirection can reduce the size of your profiles to less than 20mb. Edited April 29, 2014 by Byford-Rew

[garethEds]

I use Mandatory profiles here but a local copy is still created at login. When they log off delprof2 deletes it. All of their Desktop, My docs etc are redirected.

 

This is interesting - but how long does your logon take? We use mandatory profiles and redirected desktop, mydocs etc etc. We do not use delprof2 yet (looking at it) - however our logon times can be anywhere between 42 and 120 seconds.

 

How long is yours?

 

Gareth

[garethEds]

Which server OS are you using? There are Group Policy settings which can be applied to the local computer to prevent profile bloat at log off. Also check out the 'exclude from profile' group policy settings as there are MANY files in group policies which don't need to be there as they are copied from the local machine at login if they are missing / required which is much faster than moving them around at login. This link will help here:How to prevent folders from roaming with a profile in Windows Server 2003 doing this and folder redirection can reduce the size of your profiles to less than 20mb.

 

This article is for Server 2003 - does it work for 2008R2? Also is there any need for this if we use mandatory profiles?

 

Gareth

[fairm010]

We measured 15 seconds in the holidays. On a school day (factoring in dc requests, profile read time etc) it took 30-40 seconds.

[garethEds]

We measured 15 seconds in the holidays. On a school day (factoring in dc requests, profile read time etc) it took 30-40 seconds.

 

30-40 seconds isn't bad. Ours ranges from that to over 2 minutes.

 

It seems to stall at the mapped drives setting

 

Gareth

[Byford-Rew]

Our login times went down from 2 minutes plus to 40 seconds. Here are the list of folders currently excluded:

 

Application Data\Macromedia;Application Data\Sun;Application Data\Adobe;Application Data\U3;Cookies;Application Data\Citrix\PNAgent;Application Data\Skype;Application Data\Dropbox\cache;Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles;Start Menu;NetHood;Application Data\Google;Application Data\Macromedia\Dreamweaver 8\Configuration\Menus\Cache\Menus;Application Data\Macromedia;Downloads; Scratch Projects;pnlinks;AppData\Roaming\Dropbox;Desktop;PrivacIE;Application Data\vlog;Application Data\Google;Application Data\CodeRush for VS .NET;Application Data\VisualStudio;Application Data\Dropbox;Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio;Application Data\LogSys;Application Data\Mozilla;Application Data\Dropbox