[1709, fcu] Implementing UE-V

[Davida1992]

We are currently running Windows 7 and we are in the process of preparing to move to Windows 10 for about 3000 machines. Previously we have used roaming profiles, but we are about to remove these in prep for Win 10. We have instead turned on Folder Redirection and we are currently in a scenario where we are using roaming profiles and folder redirection at the same time.

In the near future we will be turning off Roaming profiles fully, leaving only folder redirection. We have already done this for a few users, but we are finding a few issues, for example:

- File and folder pins are no longer staying for users.

- Outlook signatures are available, but are not set as default for new and reply messages

- Desktop icons all aligned to left

The above are just a few of the small issues we are finding, I am guessing that these settings are not part of appdata/roaming, so even though we redirect this, it doesn't appear to help for these things...

To combat the above issues, we are looking into UE-V, having never used it before I am slightly concerned as I want to make sure we get this right...

I have setup a share for UE-V data, and I am going to download the .admx files for group policy to be able to set the location for UE-V data etc.

I am under the impression that the Agent is required to be installed? Is this agent required for Windows 7 and Windows 10? Do I need to obtain the download from Volume Licensing or is it readily available, I cannot see to find it? Also, the download appears to be a .exe which is going to be a problem for us, we don't use SCCM so I am unsure how we are going to push this to our clients. Is there an MSI available for it?

Once I have done the above, is there really anything else I need to do or is that it? Where/how do I specify what settings are in UE-V? We want to continue using folder redirection, it would be good to be able to use this to combat the issues I listed above in regards to pins, Outlook signatures etc.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks

Edited March 13, 2018 by Davida1992

[PeterH]

OK I have just spent the best part of the last week battling with UE-V on Windows 10. There are a number of caveats and in our experience it is less than perfect, but the general configuration outlined below seems to work for us.

 

So to start with, UE-V is part of the latest builds of Windows 10. There is no agent to install - it is already there and simply needs switching on. To configure UE-V, it is best done with group policy. Again, if you are using the latest Windows 10 ADMX templates, the UE-V configuration items will be there already.

 

Firstly to configure UE-V, you will will need two network shares on a server somewhere. The first one is the Settings Storage Location, which is where each user's UE-V settings packages will be stored. The second is the Settings Template Catalogue, which contains the settings templates. These tell UE-V where each application stores is settings, so it knows which file / registry locations to sync. You can find a guide to creating these and the permissions you need here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack/uev-v2/security-considerations-for-ue-v-2x-both-uevv2. However the permissions specified in that document did not work for us! So this is what we used to get it working:

 

Settings Storage Location (e.g. \\server1\uev-settings)

 

Share Permissons

 

Domain Admins: Full Control

Domain Users: Full Control

 

NTFS Permissions

 

Domain Admins: Full Control: This folder, subfolders and files

Domain Users: List folder / Read Data, Create Folders / Append Data: This folder only

Creator Owner: Full Control: Subfolders and Files Only

 

Settings Template Catalogue (e.g. \\server1\uev-templates)

 

Share Permissions

 

Domain Admins: Full Control

Domain Computers: Full Control

 

NTFS Permissions

 

Domain Admins: Full Control: This folder, subfolders and files

Domain Computers: Modify: This folder, subfolders and files

 

Once you have created your shares, you can configure UE-V using group policy. UE-V is configured in both Computer Configuration and User Configuration. There are a number of settings you will find in Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Microsoft User Experience Virtualization. The settings we made are as follows. Some things can be configured both in Computer and User configuration, so I'm not sure which is best practise, but the following works for us:

 

Computer Configuration

 

• Sync Method: None (note that this actually disables the UE_V Sync provider and establishes a direct file connection to the settings storage path. In testing, we found this to be much more reliable)
  
• Enable UEV: Enabled (note the auto-register inbox templates option doesn’t seem to work on Windows 10 1709, some searching online suggested this is no longer supported)
  
• First Use Notification: Disabled
  
• Settings Template Catalog Path: e.g. \\server1\uev-templates
  
• Sync unlisted Windows apps: Enabled
  
• Synchroinze Windows Settings: Enable all
  
• Tray Icon: Disabled
  
• Use user Experience Virtualisation: Enabled
  

 

 

User Configuration

 

• Do not synchronise Windows Apps: Disabled
  
• Settings Storage Path: e.g. \\server1\uev-settings\%username% (note you need %username% to create a folder for each user in the settings storage location)
  
• Synchronise Windows Settings: Enabled
  
• Use User Experience Virtualisation: Enabled
  

 

 

Having created all of the above, you need to copy the Microsoft UEV settings templates from a Windows 10 computer into your settings template catalogue share. On 1709, these may be found in C:\ProgramData\microsoft\uev\inboxtemplates - just copy the files over.

 

If you need any additional settings templates, there is a settings location template gallery here: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=246589. There are some templates to help with roaming desktop settings and pinned items on the taskbar and so on.

 

Reboot one of your workstations and you should find UE-V is working. You can use Powershell to test it, the following commands may be useful:

 

Get-UevConfiguration: This should show that SyncEnabled is True and it should show the settings storage path and the settings template catalog path that you configured in GPO

 

Get-UevTemplate: This should display a list of imported UEV templates and will confirm that your settings template catalog path is working correctly.

 

Finally, as each user logs in, it should create a folder for that user in your UEV Settings Location, containing the settings packages for that account (note that these are in hidden folders so you will not see them unless you are showing hidden files/folders in explorer)

 

 

There are a few additional items you can set in the registry to configure the UE-V agent. These are all in HLKM\Software\Microsoft\UEV\Agent\Configuration:

 

RepositoryOwnerCheckEnabled:REG_DWORD=1 (see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack/uev-v2/security-considerations-for-ue-v-2x-both-uevv2)

 

WaitForSyncOnLogon: REG_DWORD: 1 and WaitForSyncOnApplicationStart: REG_DWORD: 1 (we found setting these seemed to make syncing of pinned taskbar items more reliable)

 

There are a few issues we have discovered and there will be other things I'm sure that crop up:

 

• Roaming Outlook profiles with UE-V is not supported (see https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/2850989/migrating-mapi-profiles-with-microsoft-ue-v-is-not-supported). You may have issues with roaming Outlook signatures also, because the default signature is referenced in the Outlook profile.
  
• 
  
• Roaming IE Favorites with UE-V works OK, but Edge Favorites don't roam and is not supported and neither do any other Edge settings. Thanks Microsoft. No wonder people are switching to Chrome.
  
• 
  
• We still have a few issues roaming Office 2016 toolbar settings, which don't seem to work very reliably.
  

[Davida1992]

Thanks very much for that PeterH, I appreciate the time you have put in to write this all out, I am sure this will save us a lot of time and shouting

 

On a side note, how do you deal with Outlook signatures etc if they do not seem to roam? (I am assuming here that you use Outlook desktop and not OWA etc)

 

Thanks.

[PeterH]

Yes we use Outlook desktop, but most people who are likely to use signatures here are staff who mostly use the same computers, so I don't think it will be a huge problem for us. We are still testing UE-V and haven't rolled it out yet, so we will see! But we have found that the setting "Automatically configure profile based on Active Directory Primary SMTP address" in Outlook 2016 group policy helps with the non-roaming profile issue.

[Davida1992]

Yes we use Outlook desktop, but most people who are likely to use signatures here are staff who mostly use the same computers, so I don't think it will be a huge problem for us. We are still testing UE-V and haven't rolled it out yet, so we will see! But we have found that the setting "Automatically configure profile based on Active Directory Primary SMTP address" in Outlook 2016 group policy helps with the non-roaming profile issue.

 

I'll give it a try and see how we get on. The issue with our staff (admin/support and teaching) is that they move from PC to PC quite often. We have set GPO's so that local profiles are only removed after 30 days of non-use, so once they have setup on all the PCs they will be using, it should be OK, but I am sure it is going to cause a few issues for our Service Desk.... We can see how it goes though, thanks again for your input and help

[Davida1992]

PeterH - quick question, I am looking into this at the moment... have you installed the UEV agent/client onto your machines? I thought the functionality was included in windows 10, but I am looking around and most people still seem to be installing the agent....

 

Can you make this work without in Win10, or is the agent still required?

 

Thanks

[maark]

following Peter H excellent instructions above I have got it working on 1709 edition - no need to install agent it is built-in and activated through group policy.

[Patrick]

As a side note and this may save you some time, I was using UE-V for chrome but found it a touch slow and not 100% reliable. So i used chrome group ADMX templates to redirect chrome settings/data to the users documents folder. The GPO's are:

 

Set the roaming profile directory = ${documents}\Chrome

Enable the creation of roaming copies of Google Chrome profile data = Enabled

 

Bet you could redirect this to the UE-V folder if you don't want users to see it.

[Ricky_Babwah]

Hi Peter,

 

Not sure if you come across this problem. I have tested on Local and Mandatory profiles.

 

User A logs onto computer A with a local profile and customises all the settings they require. User A then logs onto computer B with a local profile and UE-V applies the settings but only for a brief 1 / 2 seconds (you see the desktop flash up then revert back to the original one). It then writes the reverted settings back to you UE-V share. So when user A logs back onto computer A they get the reverted settings.

 

However if User A logs onto computer A and B at the same time and Customises changes on computer A changes are reflected on computer B. You can then logon to computer A or B and work with all changes. Until you logon to computer C.... :\

 

Its been a week and I am almost giving up with this!

 

Thanks

Ricky

[Patrick]

Does anyone know if it's possible with local profiles and UE-V to set desktop settings by default? Such as icon size and layout?

[jaminben]

 

There are a few additional items you can set in the registry to configure the UE-V agent. These are all in HLKM\Software\Microsoft\UEV\Agent\Configuration:

 

WaitForSyncOnLogon: REG_DWORD: 1 and WaitForSyncOnApplicationStart: REG_DWORD: 1 (we found setting these seemed to make syncing of pinned taskbar items more reliable)

 

Firstly, great post

 

I'm stuggling to get taskbar pinned items to sync correctly (I've added the above registry items)... for some reason I only get white icons where items should be pinned. Windows know's what they are as when I try to repin an item from the start menu it tells me it can unpin it and if I right click on the white icon it shows what it is and I can open it from there but if I click on it, it displays the message 'Can't open this item'.

 

 

Any ideas?

[PeterH]

For syncing taskbar items, did you try importing the settings template here: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Start-Menu-UE-V-Template-b44ad773

It does claim to be able to support roaming taskbar items. It have tested it briefly and it does seem to work but haven't used it much yet.

 

I don't know why UEV settings would apply and then disappear. it sounds like they are getting overwritten by something. Is there anything in group policy, or anything in a login script that might cause that? Depending on how you have it set up, login scripts sometimes don't finish until after the desktop has appeared.

[jaminben]

For syncing taskbar items, did you try importing the settings template here: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Start-Menu-UE-V-Template-b44ad773

It does claim to be able to support roaming taskbar items. It have tested it briefly and it does seem to work but haven't used it much yet.

 

I don't know why UEV settings would apply and then disappear. it sounds like they are getting overwritten by something. Is there anything in group policy, or anything in a login script that might cause that? Depending on how you have it set up, login scripts sometimes don't finish until after the desktop has appeared.

 

 

Ok, I'll try that template... I was previously using this one https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Windows-10-1703-Desktop-902d8690

 

I don't think it's being overwritten but more that it's too quick for it's own good and it can't apply the link in time.... I have very few GPO's being applied at the moment as I wanted to get the basics working first (start menu etc.).

 

If I attached a taskbar item from the start menu like settings it works fine everytime but if I copy one from the redirected start menu like word it doesn't work apart from on the orginal machine.... with the exception you can right click it and it knows its word and will also launch from there (see screenshot).

[ITHand]

Hi, I followed the PeterH procedure to the letter, but I seem to have some problems.

 

Using the PowerSheel commands, I checked that everything was turned on and that's the case. Regedit also.

 

When we connect to a new machine, the wallpaper and icon layout apply correctly.

 

But when I configure the "Calculator" application, the configurations do not apply on the B station. What's strange, when opening, we see that the computer is trying to make a configuration because part of the application is flatter and grayer, but returns to the initial state of the application without changes ...

 

I did some tests with Wordpad, and these seem to work (rule disabled, different output format, etc.).

 

For now, I do not have a template in my catalog (phase 1 of the tests), but normally, if I change the settings on the computer A, they should apply on the computer B, right?

 

We are using Windows 10 1709 with Windows server 2012 with admx updated. No UE-V agent installation.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thank you in advance !

Edited April 27, 2018 by ITHand

[ITHand]

Hello, I think we can make UEV work. I wonder, however, if it is possible to set the applications in a "standard" way for our laboratories or does it absolutely necessary to go through a Local Profile or Mandatory Profile? The ideal would be to have ready-made configurations in the UEV catalog, but I don't find it possible ...?

 

What do you use to have your applications configured according to your "standard"?

 

Thanks

[eddyc]

Thanks for the guide, this has been really useful in helping to start our transition from roaming profiles to UE-V.

 

I am having a few issues however and am not sure if the behavior is expected or if I haven't turned something on that I need to do?

 

I have positioned desktop icons in the four corners of the screen and these stay in that location when I move between devices - great.

 

I have set "Combine taskbar items" to never and this follow me between devices - also great.

 

Notification area - I have set to always show all icons - This doesn't seem to roam with me (nor does it reapply on the device that I first set it on).

 

IE history doesn't seem to move.

 

Edge history doesn't seem to move.

 

I am sure that I have imported all of the necessary XML files.

 

Any pointers would be appreciated.

 

I've turned off redirected app data and my test user is using a local profile.

 

cheers, eddyc

 

 

OK I have just spent the best part of the last week battling with UE-V on Windows 10. There are a number of caveats and in our experience it is less than perfect, but the general configuration outlined below seems to work for us.

 

So to start with, UE-V is part of the latest builds of Windows 10. There is no agent to install - it is already there and simply needs switching on. To configure UE-V, it is best done with group policy. Again, if you are using the latest Windows 10 ADMX templates, the UE-V configuration items will be there already.

 

Firstly to configure UE-V, you will will need two network shares on a server somewhere. The first one is the Settings Storage Location, which is where each user's UE-V settings packages will be stored. The second is the Settings Template Catalogue, which contains the settings templates. These tell UE-V where each application stores is settings, so it knows which file / registry locations to sync. You can find a guide to creating these and the permissions you need here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack/uev-v2/security-considerations-for-ue-v-2x-both-uevv2. However the permissions specified in that document did not work for us! So this is what we used to get it working:

 

Settings Storage Location (e.g. \\server1\uev-settings)

 

Share Permissons

 

Domain Admins: Full Control

Domain Users: Full Control

 

NTFS Permissions

 

Domain Admins: Full Control: This folder, subfolders and files

Domain Users: List folder / Read Data, Create Folders / Append Data: This folder only

Creator Owner: Full Control: Subfolders and Files Only

 

Settings Template Catalogue (e.g. \\server1\uev-templates)

 

Share Permissions

 

Domain Admins: Full Control

Domain Computers: Full Control

 

NTFS Permissions

 

Domain Admins: Full Control: This folder, subfolders and files

Domain Computers: Modify: This folder, subfolders and files

 

Once you have created your shares, you can configure UE-V using group policy. UE-V is configured in both Computer Configuration and User Configuration. There are a number of settings you will find in Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Microsoft User Experience Virtualization. The settings we made are as follows. Some things can be configured both in Computer and User configuration, so I'm not sure which is best practise, but the following works for us:

 

Computer Configuration

 

• Sync Method: None (note that this actually disables the UE_V Sync provider and establishes a direct file connection to the settings storage path. In testing, we found this to be much more reliable)
  
• Enable UEV: Enabled (note the auto-register inbox templates option doesn’t seem to work on Windows 10 1709, some searching online suggested this is no longer supported)
  
• First Use Notification: Disabled
  
• Settings Template Catalog Path: e.g. \\server1\uev-templates
  
• Sync unlisted Windows apps: Enabled
  
• Synchroinze Windows Settings: Enable all
  
• Tray Icon: Disabled
  
• Use user Experience Virtualisation: Enabled
  

 

 

User Configuration

 

• Do not synchronise Windows Apps: Disabled
  
• Settings Storage Path: e.g. \\server1\uev-settings\%username% (note you need %username% to create a folder for each user in the settings storage location)
  
• Synchronise Windows Settings: Enabled
  
• Use User Experience Virtualisation: Enabled
  

 

 

Having created all of the above, you need to copy the Microsoft UEV settings templates from a Windows 10 computer into your settings template catalogue share. On 1709, these may be found in C:\ProgramData\microsoft\uev\inboxtemplates - just copy the files over.

 

If you need any additional settings templates, there is a settings location template gallery here: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=246589. There are some templates to help with roaming desktop settings and pinned items on the taskbar and so on.

 

Reboot one of your workstations and you should find UE-V is working. You can use Powershell to test it, the following commands may be useful:

 

Get-UevConfiguration: This should show that SyncEnabled is True and it should show the settings storage path and the settings template catalog path that you configured in GPO

 

Get-UevTemplate: This should display a list of imported UEV templates and will confirm that your settings template catalog path is working correctly.

 

Finally, as each user logs in, it should create a folder for that user in your UEV Settings Location, containing the settings packages for that account (note that these are in hidden folders so you will not see them unless you are showing hidden files/folders in explorer)

 

 

There are a few additional items you can set in the registry to configure the UE-V agent. These are all in HLKM\Software\Microsoft\UEV\Agent\Configuration:

 

RepositoryOwnerCheckEnabled:REG_DWORD=1 (see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack/uev-v2/security-considerations-for-ue-v-2x-both-uevv2)

 

WaitForSyncOnLogon: REG_DWORD: 1 and WaitForSyncOnApplicationStart: REG_DWORD: 1 (we found setting these seemed to make syncing of pinned taskbar items more reliable)

 

There are a few issues we have discovered and there will be other things I'm sure that crop up:

 

• Roaming Outlook profiles with UE-V is not supported (see https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/2850989/migrating-mapi-profiles-with-microsoft-ue-v-is-not-supported). You may have issues with roaming Outlook signatures also, because the default signature is referenced in the Outlook profile.
  
• 
  
• Roaming IE Favorites with UE-V works OK, but Edge Favorites don't roam and is not supported and neither do any other Edge settings. Thanks Microsoft. No wonder people are switching to Chrome.
  
• 
  
• We still have a few issues roaming Office 2016 toolbar settings, which don't seem to work very reliably.
  

[Disease]

I am having an issue with it not creating the user folder for the settings in the first place so nothing gets applied. I am using LTSB 2019 and have followed everything to the letter, although I am using a mandatory profile.

[synaesthesia]

although I am using a mandatory profile.

 

That'll be you're issue won't it?

[Disease]

That'll be you're issue won't it?

 

Tried it with a local profile, still doesn't create the folder.

[synaesthesia]

Try specifying the folder in the user's home area; I recall having difficulties and putting it into their My Documents folder made it work instantly. It's hidden so won't be seen or tampered with. I can only imagine it's permissions related although I tried to recreate an area with identical permissions for testing and it still didn't work, so left them in the users docs folder

[Stefletch01]

Hi,

Did you ever resolve the issue with individual folders not being created/used by UE-V using the %username% environment variable. We are seeing the same thing where Windows 10 seems to try and save in the folder called %username% rather than translating it into the actual username of the user. We are finding it very temperamental. Checked NTFS / Share permissions. The folders do get created but just not used. I'd rather not move to the users home folders as they are on a DFSR share.

Edited November 12, 2019 by Stefletch01