mikkydoos Posted October 9, 2017 Posted October 9, 2017 (edited) Hi all, I'm looking at getting rid of roaming profiles altogether. They're a PITA and never worked properly. The only reason I'm still using them is to give users an identical desktop environment wherever they logon. They are pointless for our VPN users, a PITA on laptops, and most use the same couple of machines, except pupils. I'm using folder redirection for most profile folders except appdata. Any comments on your experience of getting rid of roaming profiles appreciated. Cheers in advance Edited October 9, 2017 by mikkydoos
sted Posted October 9, 2017 Posted October 9, 2017 they also seem to cause more trouble than they are worth on windows 10 in general no but while i still have win7 pcs and stuff works im not changing it im just forcing windows 10 pcs i add to only use local profiles via gpo 1
DavR Posted October 10, 2017 Posted October 10, 2017 I'm still using roaming profiles on Win 10 1703, primarily to save Outlook settings. I've been pleasantly surprised actually, I haven't had to deal with any corrupt V6 profiles yet, although this system is only a few months old. Out of interest, does anyone have an alternative to roaming profiles to roam Outlook settings? Just in case I've spoken too soon....
sted Posted October 10, 2017 Posted October 10, 2017 I'm still using roaming profiles on Win 10 1703, primarily to save Outlook settings. I've been pleasantly surprised actually, I haven't had to deal with any corrupt V6 profiles yet, although this system is only a few months old. Out of interest, does anyone have an alternative to roaming profiles to roam Outlook settings? Just in case I've spoken too soon.... dont they roam with appdata?
robyholmes Posted October 10, 2017 Posted October 10, 2017 I'm still using roaming profiles on Win 10 1703, primarily to save Outlook settings. I've been pleasantly surprised actually, I haven't had to deal with any corrupt V6 profiles yet, although this system is only a few months old. Out of interest, does anyone have an alternative to roaming profiles to roam Outlook settings? Just in case I've spoken too soon.... We're using redirected AppData & UE-V. Still in the early days but working well so far.
just_david Posted October 10, 2017 Posted October 10, 2017 I've wanted to give UE-V a go for a while, but most of our sites we're just turning profiles off / using local profiles. They were causing more harm than good - that said we wouldn't do this on a larger site - but the larger sites have the budget for better/more reliable kit
andyturpie Posted October 10, 2017 Posted October 10, 2017 Yes, we have no other option as CC4.5 - however we never really suffer from corrupt profiles.
davethetekkie Posted October 10, 2017 Posted October 10, 2017 Yup. Not for long though. Causing far too much trouble at present at my primary and I only get 4 hours a week to do what needs to be done. Looking into best alternatives now and thinking UE-V will be part of the change to Windows 10.
sparkeh Posted October 10, 2017 Posted October 10, 2017 Yeah never used 'em either and with MS looking like they aren't investing in them in windows 10 I won't start now. I mean, they aren't supported with start menu deployment!
abaxter2 Posted October 10, 2017 Posted October 10, 2017 Was using roaming profiles on Windows 10 up until the summer break, when I rolled out Windows 10 1703 build, now gone with local profiles and installing solid state drives as and when I can, so far working better than ever. Have always had redirected folders.
timbo343 Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 (edited) Still using Roaming Profiles for those that have Outlook installed on their machine (16 members of staff) - that's the only reason, otherwise it's mandatory profile for EVERYONE. There's a mandatory profile setup for students and one setup for staff and all is working fine on windows 10 LTSB 2016 and has been for the last 16 months 🙂. Everything is redirected except the appdata (and the contacts, saved searches - there's a couple that we dont do anything with) but the majority (documents, desktop, pictures, videos, downloads) are mapped to the user's userarea. Edited October 11, 2017 by timbo343
free780 Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 (edited) I think MS is depreciating roaming profiles. Local with UEV seems to be the best way to go. Desktop Outlook is a pain. I think MS want a 1:1 approach to PCs with data and settings store in azure. You can stored UEV settings in OneDrive. Edited October 11, 2017 by free780
Zoom7000 Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 (edited) I'm still using roaming profiles on Win 10 1703, primarily to save Outlook settings. I've been pleasantly surprised actually, I haven't had to deal with any corrupt V6 profiles yet, although this system is only a few months old. Out of interest, does anyone have an alternative to roaming profiles to roam Outlook settings? Just in case I've spoken too soon.... I've got a thread about this here: (https://www.edugeek.net/showthread.php?t=187913) I've managed to set up UE-V and test a few PCs in my live environment, but have still had no luck in managing to get the initial settings to copy over. Once I manually set up Outlook, it remembers all the internal settings like signature and all that, but it doesn't remember the account settings at all. The other problem I've found with only using local profiles is the initial logon time. First logon on a new PC with a base 1703 image is taking over 3 minutes. I've created a 1703 build with NTLite where I have stripped every Windows app except Cortana (Stripping Cortana was breaking Windows search across the OS). However on testing this build, it's still taking nearly the same time, that's without GPOs and any printer mappings [emoji21] I've not succumbed to using roaming profiles just yet, but it's fast becoming an issue and I don't want it to rear it's ugly head soon! Hoping that Fall Creators Update does something about logon times! Edited October 11, 2017 by Zoom7000
timbo343 Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 I think MS is depreciating roaming profiles. Local with UEV seems to be the best way to go. Desktop Outlook is a pain. I think MS want a 1:1 approach to PCs with data and settings stored in azure. You can stored UEV settings in OneDrive. That's exactly the way they are wanting the market to go. Basically in the future, "domain" networks wont exist, instead they will connect to our networks with their 1:1 devices and we will end up being infrastructure managers
free780 Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 (edited) Though can you see schools/colleges purchasing a laptop per student managed by intune. Data stored in 365 and maybe some legacy win32 applications available via remote app? If budgets increase then we may see the end of IT Suites. If not education will be sticking with long login times. Edited October 11, 2017 by free780
maark Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 would like to get rid of roaming profiles but struggling with uev and having no profile seems to take an age to create initial profile. On 1703 win 10 - need to find time for for testing. On another thread someone mentioned a lot of issues with intune so am steering clear of that for now.
timbo343 Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 Though can you see schools/colleges purchasing a laptop per student managed by intune. Data stored in 365 and maybe some legacy win32 applications available via remote app? If budgets increase then we may see the end of IT Suites. If not education will be sticking with long login times. Honestly, no, not at the moment, but watch this space. I keep thinking what you're thinking. Not unless something drastic happens but look at Azure, i remember it coming out years ago, about 5 years and we are only just starting to move over to it, so what MS are pushing now i think will happen in about 3 - 5 years. Obviously it takes time for people's mind sets to change. Think about sites that are using the 1:1 ipad scheme. Apple have seen a niche in the market, gone down this route and now everyone is catching up - look at the iPhone, Apple started that trend off. MS are now catching up with the Surface and other cheaper devices that are to be released soon.
3s-gtech Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 I've got a thread about this here: (https://www.edugeek.net/showthread.php?t=187913) I've managed to set up UE-V and test a few PCs in my live environment, but have still had no luck in managing to get the initial settings to copy over. Once I manually set up Outlook, it remembers all the internal settings like signature and all that, but it doesn't remember the account settings at all. The other problem I've found with only using local profiles is the initial logon time. First logon on a new PC with a base 1703 image is taking over 3 minutes. I've created a 1703 build with NTLite where I have stripped every Windows app except Cortana (Stripping Cortana was breaking Windows search across the OS). However on testing this build, it's still taking nearly the same time, that's without GPOs and any printer mappings Are you running SSDs? On my crusty old Core 2 Duo workstations initial login with a new local profile takes around 30s, about the same as a mandatory profile. This is on 1703. I don't strip out the image in the same way, I use the 'candycrusher' method. And SSDs everywhere.
Zoom7000 Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 Are you running SSDs? On my crusty old Core 2 Duo workstations initial login with a new local profile takes around 30s, about the same as a mandatory profile. This is on 1703. I don't strip out the image in the same way, I use the 'candycrusher' method. And SSDs everywhere. No, that's the trouble, I don't have SSDs on any PC. The PCs in the ICT Suite are decently spec'd. Dell Optiplex 9030 AIO, Quad Core i5 with 8GB RAM, but they only have SATA hard drives. There simply isn't any money in the budget to upgrade to SSDs and some of the older PCs are much lesser spec'd.
mikkydoos Posted October 11, 2017 Author Posted October 11, 2017 Hadn't seen UE-V before. Looks interesting. If the network isn't available to sync at logon - e.g. users working remotely over a VPN connected up after domain login with cached creds, does it throw errors or use a local copy, then sync when the connection is available ?
sted Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 Hadn't seen UE-V before. Looks interesting. If the network isn't available to sync at logon - e.g. users working remotely over a VPN connected up after domain login with cached creds, does it throw errors or use a local copy, then sync when the connection is available ? and does it do file associations as ive found the gpos for that in windows 10 just dont work reliably fed up of jammed copiers because of people printing pdfs in edge
sted Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 ok mdop what do i download as it looks useful or at least worth investigating. I logged onto vlsc and i can see 2015 but i also see there is a march 2017 version on google but that just seems to be a bunch of files
Arthur Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 I've found the gpos for that in windows 10 just don't work reliably fed up of jammed copiers because of people printing pdfs in edge Do you normally use Acrobat/Reader for PDFs? Adobe doesn't do the file associations correctly so that's why it keeps getting reset to Edge. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20170517-00/?p=96175 There is a workaround however... www.reddit.com/r/PowerShell/comments/6cecp0/preventing_edge_from_hijacking_pdf_and_html_file/
Arthur Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 ok mdop what do i download as it looks useful or at least worth investigating. The UE-V (and App-V) clients are built into Windows 10 now so all you need is the Windows 10 ADK for the UE-V Template Generator (or Sequencer for App-V).
sted Posted October 11, 2017 Posted October 11, 2017 Do you normally use Acrobat/Reader for PDFs? Adobe doesn't do the file associations correctly so that's why it keeps getting reset to Edge. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20170517-00/?p=96175 There is a workaround however... www.reddit.com/r/PowerShell/comments/6cecp0/preventing_edge_from_hijacking_pdf_and_html_file/ thanks yes but it also dosent seem to like applying it to make chrome the default browser either
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