Srv08 - terminal server - home folders change to documents

[lafleur1977]

Hello,

 

We have upgraded to server 2008 this summer on our terminal servers. The problem is when a user logs into a thin client it changes their home folder from their username to documents. We can see which student it is by looking at permissions. Anyone know why this is happening?

 

Thanks.

[Gatt]

Yeah this is an issue with redirected folders and the Desktop.ini file with Vista and 2008 IIRC

I resolved this by created a subfolder called "Documents" in each of the users home folders (ie \\server\home_share\%username%\Documents) then change their drive mapping in ADUC to that path.. (instead of \\server\home_share\%username%)

 

I think I saw a policy in 2008 R2 that corrected this behaviour.

[Nick_Parker]

Yeah this is an issue with redirected folders and the Desktop.ini file with Vista and 2008 IIRC

I resolved this by created a subfolder called "Documents" in each of the users home folders (ie \\server\home_share\%username%\Documents) then change their drive mapping in ADUC to that path.. (instead of \\server\home_share\%username%)

 

I think I saw a policy in 2008 R2 that corrected this behaviour.

 

Sorry to bother, did you ever find that policy? Because I'm now having the same problem with Windows 7 [see attached picture]

[Gatt]

Here you go....

 

User Config -> Admin Templates -> System -> Folder Redirection -> Use Localised subfolder names when redirecting Start menu and My Documents

[Nick_Parker]

Here you go....

 

User Config -> Admin Templates -> System -> Folder Redirection -> Use Localised subfolder names when redirecting Start menu and My Documents

 

Just checking, you do this on the group policy on the DC that does the redirection?

Because I've changed this and folders as still appearing as "Documents"

[Gatt]

Yeah edit the policy on the DC but assign it to the PCs/users you want it to apply to.

 

Also, you need to delete the Desktop.ini from the affected folders...

Edited August 23, 2009 by Gatt

[Nick_Parker]

Yeah edit the policy on the DC but assign it to the PCs/users you want it to apply to.

 

Also, you need to delete the Desktop.ini from the affected folders...

 

Thanks so much, that did the trick straight away!

[eejit]

Hi there,

Many of my users's folders are showing up as "Shared Folders", I've tinkered about with DESKTOP.INI to get a solution but nothing has worked so far.

Even deleting DESKTOP.INI has not changed them back to their regular names.

 

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[TheCrust]

Where are you seeing the problem?

 

Do your users see it, or do you see it when you're browsing a list of the folders in explorer when logged on as admin?

 

We see the latter on our file servers. At first the initial reaction was more one of "what the chuff is going on here....?" when you see a long list of what looks like the same folder, but as you've already sussed out, it's a display thing only.

 

From what I remember, its down to Vista giving folders more "cuddly" names without actually changing their filename on the disk - it stores the display name in the desktop.ini file in the root of the folder. Which is all well and good until you start going through the top-level folder storing user home drives looking for a specific one and find them all called "Documents". Helpful. Not.

 

I read that it's down to the administrative account (or logged on user if you are using another one) having read access to all those desktop.ini files. The way around it that was being pitched in the document I saw is to deny administrative access to those desktop.ini files - this will prevent Explorer reading the files and displaying the folders using their Vista-based name and you will see the true folder name instead. The user, still having rights to it, sees the folder names as Vista wants to display them.

 

Deleting the files might also work, but then there's the chance the next time the users use Vista-based machines that the files are recreated and you're right back to square one.

 

Or you could do what we do - ignore it - and click in the breadcrumb trail at the top of the screen and enter the folder name in the path you're searching for: that will soon highlight the folder you want.

Edited October 18, 2009 by TheCrust