Andy_Corrin Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 Hi, First time poster here.... Hoping someone can offer advice.... Looking at the Offline files feature (winXP), i understand it an all and have no probs with setting it up etc.... what i would like to know if there is a way to get it sync for just one user account that i can specify??? Basically, the scenario.... A teacher has a laptop and needs to have their HomeDrive available offline, however i want the client PC to sync only that one persons Homedrive... If another user logs on, their drives are mapped up (inc. Homedrive) and as a redirected folder it automatically adds that folder to the sync folders list.... This means that everytime the teacher who's laptop it is logs on/off it sync's every user who's ever logged onto their laptop. What is the best way to disable the sync redirected folders EXCEPT the 1 user I specify? hope this makes sense! Cheers everyone Andy
jsnetman Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 You could try setting "Administratively assigned offline files" to \\servername\userdocs\accountname this will then only allow that folder to synchronise only. You will have to reinitialise the csc folder for it to work. This setting can be done in user or machine policy, machine policy overides user policy.
Andy_Corrin Posted December 10, 2009 Author Posted December 10, 2009 If thats set in GPO.... does that mean i'd have to give each laptop account its own specific GPO? How else will it distinguish which users home drive to Sync and exclude every other user? Appreciate your help alot
jsnetman Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 Yes I see your point, this happens here when teachers use other peoples laptops. I have tried to discourage this but obviously it can't be enforced. If each teacher has their own laptop why on earth are they using others, the answer probably being well I forgot mine this morning. The answer should be tough.
Andy_Corrin Posted December 10, 2009 Author Posted December 10, 2009 just having a think.... What if i set a GPO on the OU containing the Teachers laptops.... and in it tell it not to auto sync folders and that.... what if i then went to each teachers laptop and used GPEDIT.MSC to specifiy which folder to sync. Would that work you think, or would it not even pick up the local machine policy?
Iain.Faulkner Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 We have exactly the same issue as well. All staff have a laptop, there are plenty of desktop PC's in classrooms and staff areas, why do they need to log on to somebody else's machine? Vista seems to cope with it far better, if that laptop will take it.
jsnetman Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 You could write a little batch file to add a registry entry to flush the csc folder. You would have to instruct staff to only run it if the laptop is syncing other users folder and only after a full sync has been acheived by them. Store it in a shared location for them to run. How to re-initialize the offline files cache and database
plexer Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 It's an issue with offline files on xp you just have to live with it I'm afraid. Ben
plexer Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 It's an issue with offline files on xp you just have to live with it I'm afraid. Ben
Andy_Corrin Posted December 10, 2009 Author Posted December 10, 2009 So i take it that none of you think setting the administrative offline folders bit in GPEDIT will work then? As thats local to the machine.... it could be set specifically for the owner of that laptop and not set per user. Hopefully that would work, maybe in conjunction with the script jsnetman mentioned just to make sure it gets rid of any new folders for different users that may have logged on. I'll have to do some checking on GPO's versus local policy via GPEDIT! Just on a side note, What's different in VISTA/W7's handling of offline files compared to WinXP Iain? The laptop maybe able to cope with Vista, but i couldnt! haha
AIT Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 Just a thought would it be posible to do a wmi filter for a specific user? therefore enabling you to only sync offline files for one user.
Andy_Corrin Posted December 10, 2009 Author Posted December 10, 2009 I think that would bring us back to needing a GPO for each individual computer account
AIT Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 I think that would bring us back to needing a GPO for each individual computer account well no just add a wmi filter for a group
Andy_Corrin Posted December 10, 2009 Author Posted December 10, 2009 but how would i specifically set the UNC for the administrative offline folder.... ok i could filter it to a group of people (teachers) but i'd have to use %username% in the unc address so all the computers in the OU wouldnt just sync that 1 persons folder(the person I specified in the address in the GPO)... so surely it would add each teacher that logged onto the laptop??? i maybe wrong.... never messed around too much with filters. I mean this way would stop pupils home drives from sync'ing, granted. why oh why isnt there an option client side to specify which users can have offline files!!! haha
Andy_Corrin Posted December 10, 2009 Author Posted December 10, 2009 A big thanks to everyone scratching their heads with me on this one by the way haha
AIT Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 but how would i specifically set the UNC for the administrative offline folder.... ok i could filter it to a group of people (teachers) but i'd have to use %username% in the unc address so all the computers in the OU wouldnt just sync that 1 persons folder(the person I specified in the address in the GPO)... so surely it would add each teacher that logged onto the laptop??? i maybe wrong.... never messed around too much with filters. I mean this way would stop pupils home drives from sync'ing, granted. why oh why isnt there an option client side to specify which users can have offline files!!! haha well surely if you are only assigning a specific user the use of offline files. Then that user will only syncronise. hence you dont need to set the administrative offline folder. ? just a thought...
Iain.Faulkner Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 Hi Andy, to be honest I don't know what the difference between them is (when it comes to the offline files issue :-p). What I can say is that once we upgraded the laptop to Vista, we could logon to it as a number of different users and it would only allow offline files for those users that we specifically told it. As Ben mentioned, it looks like a flaw in XP....perhaps they solved it in Vista?!? (Oh my god I can't believe I just typed that :-) ).
Andy_Corrin Posted December 10, 2009 Author Posted December 10, 2009 haha it must be a first.... looks like the spent all their time fixing that part and left everything else until friday afternoon
AIT Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 haha it must be a first.... looks like the spent all their time fixing that part and left everything else until friday afternoon i believe we are getting side tracked but OMG i cannot believe you said that! lol... did make me smile
Andy_Corrin Posted December 10, 2009 Author Posted December 10, 2009 have any of you guys ever setting specific things on the local policy on a client... just wondering the priority that gets placed on the policies... I presume GPO's are processed first and then the local policy? or is it vice versa?
AIT Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 have any of you guys ever setting specific things on the local policy on a client... just wondering the priority that gets placed on the policies... I presume GPO's are processed first and then the local policy? or is it vice versa? well your computer policy would over ride the local policy?
jsnetman Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 (edited) Vista/Win7 probably does cache different users that logon to one laptop, I think the difference will be that it does not show it in the syncronising offline files applet, I'm not sure, just guessing. Surely it's not happening all the time to all the laptops, so the method of resetting via a script will be appropriate for the ones that do. And if you are hell bent on getting it to work via policies the only way would be to create one for each user, this method would still be faster than going to each machine. Edited December 10, 2009 by jsnetman
Andy_Corrin Posted December 10, 2009 Author Posted December 10, 2009 ok, next question then haha... you must be able to set the administrativly assigned offline folders locally somewhere in the REG on the client PC? what i'm thinkin is... If i set a GPO on the server to 'do not automatically make redirected folders available offline' to enabled... clean out the cached files on said laptops.... then set in the reg (HKLM) of said laptops the location of 'administrativly assigned offline folders' to sync.... that could work you think? It would certainly stop everyone who logs on from auto adding their redirected my docs (home drive) to the sync list... and if i can set the stuff i DO want to sync locally on each laptop, i can be folder specific as i know who is the owner of each laptop. My brain is confused! haha
Andy_Corrin Posted December 10, 2009 Author Posted December 10, 2009 Vista/Win7 probably does cache different users that logon to one laptop, I think the difference will be that it does not show it in the syncronising offline files applet, I'm not sure, just guessing. Surely it's not happening all the time to all the laptops, so the method of resetting via a script will be appropriate for the ones that do. And if you are hell bent on getting it to work via policies the only way would be to create one for each user, this method would still be faster than going to each machine. i suspect you maybe right that this is the only feasable way to do it server side. I work for a private contractor support primary schools.... so theirs maybe only 16 laptops that need to be setup per site.... i would set it up at every site i visit tho (50+) I must say, its great this site... the response has been great from you guys
AIT Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\NetCache Enabled=1 (dword) would enable offline files
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