Redirecting Application Data and other things

[Chuckster]

Hi all,

 

I have a few queries. This is in relation to Win2k3 SP2.

 

1. If I don't redirect the 'Application Folder' in a GPO for any of my users, does this mean whatever changes a user makes, for example, in MS Word by altering the toolbar or the layout.. the changes remain even when logging off and logging back on again?

 

2. And if I don't redirect the 'Application Folder', does this get stored in the user's My Documents? If so under what folder?

 

3. If I were to redirect the Application Folder, where would I redirect it to and what would I put in the redirected folder? Would it be \\servername\Application Folder because I've set up a shared folder called Application Folder?

 

4. In AD... right-clicking a username --> properties and going to the profile tab (I think).. you can define a person's home directory. Would I need to define a person's profile directory as well? Would you only do this if you were using mandatory profiles?

 

5. In a GPO, If I redirected the My Documents folder, would the path be: \\servername\users\%username%\My Documents or would it be \\servername\users\%username% ? I think the GPO sometimes automatically adds the 'My Documents' to the end of the %username%. Is this right or should I go with the former?

 

6. I've had a look at the Wiki and I'm not sure how to set up a profile that only students can share. I want it so that whatever changes they make it will always default back to how things originally were when they log back on again.

 

Many thanks in advance for reading.

Edited July 30, 2008 by Chuckster

[SteveMC]

Hi all,

 

I have a few queries. This is in relation to Win2k3 SP2.

 

1. If I don't redirect the 'Application Folder' in a GPO for any of my users, does this mean whatever changes a user makes, for example, in MS Word by altering the toolbar or the layout.. the changes remain even when logging off and logging back on again?

 

If the user has their own profile (ie, not a mandatory one), then yes, any changes they make will stay. Some configuration changes are stored in the ntuser.dat registry hive within the root of the user profile, whilst others are in the Application Data folder.

 

2. If I were to redirect the Application Folder, where would I redirect it to and what would I put in the redirected folder? Would it be \\servername\Application Folder because I've set up a shared folder called Application Folder?

 

If the App Data was redirected, does it mean the profiles are mandatory or roaming?

 

You can redirect it wherever you want, but it will end up with a path such as this:

 

\\servername\sharename\username\Application Data

 

3. In a GPO, If I redirected the My Documents folder, would the path be: \\servername\users\%username%\My Documents or would it be \\servername\users\%username% ? I think the GPO sometimes automatically adds the 'My Documents' to the end of the %username%. Is this right or should I go with the former?

 

The GPO does indeed add 'My Documents' to the end of that path, - unless you're using Server 2008, in which case I think it will just add 'Documents' instead.

 

4. I've had a look at the Wiki and I'm not sure how to set up a profile that only students can share. I want it so that whatever changes they make it will always default back to how things originally were when they log back on again.

 

Many thanks in advance for reading.

 

What you'll need to do is create a user for setting up the profile, - giving them a roaming profile in Active Directory Users & Computers. Get that set-up the way you want, then you can do the following:

 

1) Log on as administrator to the machine you've been using to set-up the profile

2) Right-click 'My Computer', then 'Properties'

3) Click on 'Advanced', then 'Settings' in the 'User Profiles' section.

4) Once there, select the profile of the user you've created, and click 'Copy to'

5) Enter a suitable destination (something like \\servername\profiles\studentprofile should do)

6) Click the 'Permitted to use' button, and it's easiest to just put 'Everyone'. This changes the permissions on the files and the registry hive within the profile (the ntuser.dat file) to allow other users to access the settings.

7) Click to copy the profile

 

At this point you'll have a profile on the server that you can set for whoever needs it, but they'll still be able to make changes. You need to do the following to lock it down (making it a Mandatory profile):

 

8) On the server, locate the ntuser.dat file in the profile folder, and change the extension to .man

9) If you want to make the profile 'super-mandatory' (which means that if the profile doesn't load, the user cannot logon - they won't get a temporary one instead) rename the profile folder itself to have a .man extension (eg studentprofile.man)

 

Now all you need do is point all student users at this profile path (\\server\profiles\studentprofile.man) and they won't be able to make any permanent changes.

 

There's a couple of different ways of doing this, but that should do the trick.