Missing icons and home folder connection problems. GP fault?

[JohnnyJet]

I have a problem when some users are logging onto our domain via a Windows 7 PC. Sometimes the computer doesn’t logon correctly and all the admin icons are displayed, other times the desktop only shows 4 icons rather than the approximately 10 icons that should be there, this often coincides with not being able to see their home folder, but not always (The home folder is set within AD via the Home Folder setting). However they are always able to see our common drive which is accessible by all staff. This is setup via a group policy. Admin accounts are not affected by the problem.

 

So far I have used DelProf2 to remove local profiles, re-created accounts in AD, modified access rights for home folders and changed GP to always wait for network connection.

 

For testing purposes I am only locking the PC down via GP and not using mandatory profiles.

 

We are running Windows 2008 R2.

 

This problem is not unique to just one area of the school and can occur on any Windows 7 device, some users seem to be affected more than others.

I am going round in circles here and would appreciate some guidance, there just doesn’t seem to be any pattern to the problems.

[MordyT]

Basic troubleshooting applies here. Can they access the folders manually at this time? Can they ping the server? Results of gpresult and nslookup? Event log?

[JohnnyJet]

This is a Student logon, so it is heavily locked down. They can mostly access their folders manually, but not always. I can ping the server. Running gpresult and nslookup returns expected results.

 

The only faults I can find are with the Event Log, I get the following errors -

 

Event ID 502, Can not create folder \\server\Desktops\Student All students have the same desktop which point to this directory, students have read access here. Is it necessary to make this folder have read and write access?

Event ID 502, Failed to apply policy and redirect folder "Desktop" to "\\server\Desktops\Student". Redirection option=0x9000. Can not create folder, access is denied.

Event log 1085, Windows failed to apply the folder redirection settings. Folder redirection settings might have its own log file.

[sted]

how have you redirected the desktop it looks to me like thats failing for some reason and causing other stuff to then fail. if they all go to a common desktop it should be redirect to the following location and make sure on the common tab grant the user exclusive rights isnt ticked. Also worth checking that if the desktop is down a folder structure (so \\server\profiles\win7\pupils\desktop for instance) that they can read all the folders from the root down to the desktop folder

[randidiot]

Disable Slow link, Enable Control How Group Policy Is Applied At Logon

 

Make folder redirection at the Root Share and when redirecting desktops make them READ ONLY.

[randidiot]

Btw there is a Group Policy to remove local accounts after x days.

[JohnnyJet]

Thanks for the replies, I have tried all the suggestions and am still getting the fault.

 

All I can think of is that it may be down to one of the errors appearing in the event log, the second event could be the reason I am having problems with the desktop. It says access denied but that is because that folder does not have write access. This is where I have redirected all student accounts to get the desktop from. Is only giving it write access correct?

 

Event ID 502, Can not create folder \\server\Desktops\Student All students have the same desktop which point to this directory, students have read access here.

Event ID 502, Failed to apply policy and redirect folder "Desktop" to "\\server\Desktops\Student". Redirection option=0x9000. Can not create folder, access is denied.

Event log 1085, Windows failed to apply the folder redirection settings. Folder redirection settings might have its own log file.

[MordyT]

Do they have read access? They don't need write access. How are the folders redirected? Is it running in the correct security context?

 

It really seems like the folder doesn't exist that you want to redirect to and it can't make the folder due to permissions.

 

Wireless or wired clients.

[randidiot]

You have a permission problem, Firstly make the desktop redirection folder again and give full control to everyone, then try ? how far did you get this time

 

Also add gpresult /h \\server\folder\file.html to the Logon script, NOW is the Policy being applied but throwing an error or is it not even being applied if you can see the gpresult and it is saying the folder redirection has applied but isnt working you have a permission issue

 

Folder redirection can be buggy with permissions, Can you manually navigate to the folder redirection from the affected users ?

 

The Event ID 502 you mentioned could be caused by missing incomplete information in subkeys of the following registry location:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions

You can export and import the registry from a working machine to solve this issue.

Note: Before you do this, please backup the registry key firstly.\

 

Also Check your advanced share permissions and make sure EVERYONE has full control, then add the read only within the normal sharing area.

[JohnnyJet]

Thanks for all the help, managed to solve this.

 

Turns out (as Randidiot eluded to) there was a problem with the desktop redirection folder, even after I made it accessible by everyone I still had problems. I had to create the structure from scratch and use the same access rights and it seems to be working.