Windows 7 Offline Files

[AIT]

Has anyone successfully got offline files to work with windows 7.

 

Here is my problem. Currently all our (roaming laptops) (windows xp) sync the re directed start menu, desktop and home folder. This works perfectly under xp.

Offline folders are disabled in user policy and enabled in the one computer policy for the laptops.

 

So i have just bought some new laptops (windows 7). Dropped them into the same ou as the xp's and offline files don’t work at all.

 

Am i missing something silly?

[AIT]

http://www.advanceditservices.co.uk/rsop.jpg

 

here is my rsop result for offline files.

[jsnetman]

It depends what is in some of those settings for instance "administratively assigned offline files" and "action on server disconnect", they could be having a negative effect. Basically if you have any redirected my docs folder it will sync by default without having any settings applied in machine or user GP.

[AIT]

It depends what is in some of those settings for instance "administratively assigned offline files" and "action on server disconnect", they could be having a negative effect. Basically if you have any redirected my docs folder it will sync by default without having any settings applied in machine or user GP.

 

 

administratively assigned offline files

 

%HOMESHARE%

\\venice\profiles\office

\\venice\profiles\staff

 

 

action on server disconnect

 

enabled and action work offline

Edited January 26, 2010 by AIT

[AIT]

sorry i should probably should have said:

 

Windows xp works perfectly with the settings above. i am interested to know if anyone else has experienced difficulty or has got windows 7 working with offline files.

 

Thanks in advance.. a very stressed out man

[box_l]

Both of your user and computer section in the GP have an exclamation mark against them.

 

can you look to see what these mean? there may be more to this RSOP than we can see.

 

BoX

[AIT]

Both of your user and computer section in the GP have an exclamation mark against them.

 

can you look to see what these mean? there may be more to this RSOP than we can see.

 

BoX

 

it only has an exclamation mark against the user the initial one is to state there is an exclamation mark on the policy.

 

This is because i have removed any user policy’s to make sure it wasn’t that interfering.

[strawberry]

might be worth using amdx templates for any 7 clients as they dont always play nicely with adms.

[AIT]

might be worth using amdx templates for any 7 clients as they dont always play nicely with adms.

 

this should be an admx template. as it was generated on 2008 r2 server.

[SYNACK]

I have got it working on Vista and 7 for laptops, used a seporate GPO for them though as using the XP ones is begging for trouble. WMI filters on the user policies allow for this quite easily.

 

Vista and 7 are much more rigerous with the settings than XP was as half of the XP ones only worked partially. I ended up configuring the offline files in the per user GPOs as otherwise it attempts to machine sync them with machine credentials. It also seemed to wait for a user to trigger a sync directly because of this so that it had credentials that would work.

 

I setup the Admin Offline Files on the user GPOs and then Enable offline files in the machine GPO for laptops. As I have it disabled for workstation this means that they can log on to either and get the desired behaviour.

 

Because these are triggered under user credentials it means that it only syncs there files, not anyone who has logged ons files like XP and it also sets up the sync propperly rather than leaving it un synced.

 

I also set the sync at logon and sync at logoff options in the user policy as because Vista and 7 both use fast sync it does not take long and enforces the sync. Oh I also enforce "Economical application of admin assigned files" in the laptops machine config for fast sync.

 

Works quite well with way less hassle than XP.

[AIT]

I have got it working on Vista and 7 for laptops, used a seporate GPO for them though as using the XP ones is begging for trouble. WMI filters on the user policies allow for this quite easily.

 

Vista and 7 are much more rigerous with the settings than XP was as half of the XP ones only worked partially. I ended up configuring the offline files in the per user GPOs as otherwise it attempts to machine sync them with machine credentials. It also seemed to wait for a user to trigger a sync directly because of this so that it had credentials that would work.

 

I setup the Admin Offline Files on the user GPOs and then Enable offline files in the machine GPO for laptops. As I have it disabled for workstation this means that they can log on to either and get the desired behaviour.

 

Because these are triggered under user credentials it means that it only syncs there files, not anyone who has logged ons files like XP and it also sets up the sync propperly rather than leaving it un synced.

 

I also set the sync at logon and sync at logoff options in the user policy as because Vista and 7 both use fast sync it does not take long and enforces the sync. Oh I also enforce "Economical application of admin assigned files" in the laptops machine config for fast sync.

 

Works quite well with way less hassle than XP.

 

Thank you for your reply. i have read about "Economical application of admin assigned files"

 

however this does not apear in my group policy editor?

[SYNACK]

Thank you for your reply. i have read about "Economical application of admin assigned files"

 

however this does not apear in my group policy editor?

 

Are you editing the policy on a 2008 server or Vista or higher level computer with RSAT? It only appears in the machine policy not in the user one so it has to be applied at the laptop OU level along with the enabling of offline files for that group of computers.

[AIT]

Are you editing the policy on a 2008 server or Vista or higher level computer with RSAT? It only appears in the machine policy not in the user one so it has to be applied at the laptop OU level along with the enabling of offline files for that group of computers.

 

yes edeting on 2008 r2 server.

or edeting on windows 7 with rsat. and i cant see the policy.

[SYNACK]

You sure you are in the machine level policies and the ADMX ones rather than the Classic Administrative Templates area. If you do not have an up to date central store for GP Templates maybe it is defaulting back to the old ones. Anyhow it is weird, shows up on mine under r2 as attached:

[AIT]

You sure you are in the machine level policies and the ADMX ones rather than the Classic Administrative Templates area. If you do not have an up to date central store for GP Templates maybe it is defaulting back to the old ones. Anyhow it is weird, shows up on mine under r2 as attached:

 

ok i feel really stupid now!!!!!!

 

I have been looking for this setting for quite some time (not that it will solve the problem of the policy not working) but wanted to find it..

 

I have not seen it.. (Just looked now it’s there clear as day)

 

Apologies for wasting peoples time on that problem. Any more suggestions why the policy isn’t working would be greatly appreciated

 

 

 

[SYNACK]

Are your policies for XP and 7 seporated? I have seen this cause all sorts of issues as policies are just blobs of reg entries that build up over time. Add to that the differences between XP and 7/Vista it is quite likely that any older policies are going to cause issues.

 

I can only recommend setting it up as I described above as thats the wasy that I got it all running. Perhaps if you took screenshots of the RSoP on a laptop or used the GP Modeling tool in GPMC it might give some clues and show how it is configured currently.

[sonic1485]

Did you ever get this working @AIT? I'm following guides and everything seems right with the setup but for some reason I just can't get offline files to work for our Win 7 laptops

[Duckstein]

I'm beginning to have some issues as well. The files seem to sync, but if you remove all network connectivity, you can't open the files whatsoever and says there is a problem with the file, despite it being fine to open on other machines, and when there is network connectivity to the machine

[edutech4schools]

Not that I use sync any more but I do remember Win 7 needed to be fully updated and patched for sync to work properly.