Mandatory xp profile upgrade.

[chazzy2501]

Does anyone have a workflow to update my mandatory profile to work with vista and windows 7. I've got it just the way I like it. but when trying to use a vista machine it tells me the profile couldn't be loaded and loggs off again.

 

Can I have a manatory profile that works on all 3 platforms?

[3s-gtech]

You have to use a separate mandatory profile on for XP and Vista & 7 (though the same one will work on those last two). There are many guides on doing this - the MS way involves using sysprep and the default user profile How to customize the default local user profile when you prepare an image of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2

 

Sadly you can't just alter your existing profile (I believe) but it's not a bad job making a new one this way. It'll just sit next to your existing XP profile with .v2 appended to the profile folder.

[m122794]

Unfortunately, there is no universal profile available: Vista and Win7 are just too different to work with XP profiles, but you can get away with 2 versions.

 

No need to sysprep etc...

 

Process is as follows:

Make sure you get the desired desktop config sorted as normal (by using GPO's or local policies) and log in to a PC.

Immediately log off and log back in with an adminstrator account ( or Domain Admin user in an AD environment)

Install a useful bit of software called "Windows Enabler" - this will allow you to activate greyed-out options in windows menus - you'll need it later!

Create a folder under your profile share (or create a new share) called [anything].V2 (.V2 is important as it signifies the store for Vista/Win7 profiles)

Now run control Panel -> User Accounts -> Configure advanced user profile Properties.

Select your target user from the list and click on Copy to... Now, if this button is greyed-out, click on the Windows enabler logo on the toolbar and it should go black: you can now copy the profile to your newly-created folder.

Once copied, go to the profile share and rename ntuser.dat to ntuser.man

Set the users up with a profile path (excluding the .v2 extension) and the system will find and apply the new profile

 

I use this system for both XP and Win7 clients and they work seamlessly side-by-side.

 

I hope this helps !