Slow logons - Applying Folder Redirection

[mthomas08]

We have been having severe issues and its been certain PCs - theres were built with Windows 7 using FOG.

 

Now we went round to all the PCs having this problem where they sit there loading the roaming profile for the kids for 15+ minutes and we rebuilt them. This solved our problem.

 

Only issue to remain is when their roaming profile needs deleted (because I need to lock it down even more) they have to logon and logoff then log back on. Their first logon does not load the roaming profile.. luckily enough we are not having to delete roaming profiles often. Probably one student a week.

[FN-GM]

I have been having trouble with Windows 7 logon and logoff times with our laptops connected to the wireless. I understand they will take much longer than a desktop to logon because of using roaming profiles over the wireless. However they have been hanging on please wait for the user profiles service on log on or log off sometimes to the point that they just have to be restarted and attempt to log in again with them.

 

I have enabled verbose mode to show me what GPOs this could be affecting but this seems to happen before any of the settings are applied as once it waits for a few minutes at waiting for the user profiles service the rest of the GPO settings can be seen to apply fairly swiftly and the rest of the log on process goes though without any bother.

 

I would be thankfull for any thoughts on what could be happening as it has been bugging me for a while. Thanks.

 

What kind of profiles are you using?

[bigal06]

ah ha! found it what is causing it.

 

I had blocked desktop.ini files in home areas so that it doesnt show them as "documents when you view them in a list. I will find some other way for the desktop.ini to not do this and then remove the restriction. Now the logon times are under 20 seconds when i have of the restriction.

 

Thanks for all the input

 

thanks for finding this. I have been experiencing slow logins for some time now - well since I setup the screen filter that is!

[FN-GM]

thanks for finding this. I have been experiencing slow logins for some time now - well since I setup the screen filter that is!

 

I had just rejigged our system last week. The login times are fast now

[bigal06]

I had just rejigged our system last week. The login times are fast now

 

Did you find another solution to the desktop.ini other that screen filter?

[FN-GM]

I made all the users home areas in a sub fodler called documents and let desktop.ini do its stuff.

[bigal06]

hmm.. that's how we used to have it but thought the filescreen was a fix until you pointed out the problem with slow logins. Looks like we will have to go back to that method if i can't find something else.

 

btw - login times now from over a minute to 20 seconds.

 

thanks

[gshaw]

To add further to this, I've managed to get logon down to 20-25 seconds and it all came down to tweaking policies.

 

Navigate to User Config > Policies > Admin Templates > System > Folder Redirection - Do not automatically make redirected folders available offline - Not Configured.

 

If you enable this on either Windows 7 Gold or Windows 7 SP1, you're guaranteed slow logons. It's a known bug and it'll be fixed in Windows 7 SP2.

 

If you enable verbose status messages Computer Config > Policies > Admin Templates > System - Verbose vs normal status messages - Enabled you notice a big difference when applying Folder Redirection policies/settings, taking about 2 seconds instead of many more like before.

 

The only thing I am confused about still is how some of you are managing 5 second logons with Folder Redirection. Without the policy Computer Config > Policies > Admin Templates > System > Logon - Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon - Enabled Folder Redirection fails and the user is forced to logoff and then back on again.

 

On the policy itself it also mentions:

 

 

 

Any suggestions would be welcomed!

 

@Michael

 

Maybe it's Monday morning syndrome but just need to confirm what you're saying above... let me know if I've understood these correctly...

 

1) need to make sure the GPO for Offline stuff is left unconfigured. If this is the case will disabling Offline files generally be sufficient to stop them trying to sync (not a fan of Offline Files generally so want it off)

2) keep Verbose messages on (I have them on at the moment as I wanted to see how quickly policies were applying and it shows the user something is actually happening instead of "please wait")

3) make sure Always Wait for Network is on (we have that on at the moment)

 

On our systems Preparing Desktop appears for about 10-20 seconds, already got WinMail disabled but would like to make it even quicker if possible!

 

Thanks

[Michael]

No problem at all!

 

1. You cannot switch Offline Files off via GPO in Windows 7. If you look closely, the GPOs mostly apply to Windows XP. The only method is to disable the Offline Files service which you can do via GPO in Windows 7.

2. Verbose messages are optional but recommended yes.

3. Yes, leave this policy enabled. 20 seconds is fairly typical and acceptable.

 

Realistically, I think the only way it can be improved or made quicker is for Microsoft to properly fix problems with GPP. There are some post SP2 fixes already available, however all fixes will come in Windows 7 SP2 sometime in 2013.

[zbjsy]

is 30 seconds deemed as a fast logon ? seems to take ages at "folder redirection"