Redirected Desktop issue

[witch]

Suddenly, having worked fine for a long time, one of my staff users is no longer getting the redirected desktop. I created a new user to check and the same thing is happening.

All old users are still getting the redirected desktop - with new icons added yesterday. (so it isn't cached or anything)

I can see the group policy that applies the redirection, and the staff user who fails and the new user I created are definitely in the correct place to pick up this policy.

I have checked and rechecked the properties of the users - profile, account, membership etc and all seems identical to other users which work.

Can anyone advise on what might be causing this? It is driving me nuts

 

The Server is 2003 and the issue occurs on both Windows 7 and XP machines

[Ryan233]

Windows Server 2003 R2?

[witch]

Windows Server 2003 R2?

 

Yes. I have just created a policy with ONLY the redirected desktop in it and that doesnt work either when applied to the correct OU

[apeo]

Do you see any desktop icons or is it just a blank desktop?

[cneilson6]

have you tried gp modeller or gpresult against the non working user to a working user?

[witch]

The only Icons I get are locally installed stuff. The thing is, the redirected desktop is part of a big staff policy and the rest of it is being applied fine.

I have tried taking out the relevant bit of the policy and letting the new policy apply the desktop but still no go

[Bertie_Dellend]

i couldnt get redirected desktop to work properly without "forcing" it with a .reg script -

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\bux\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders]

 

"Desktop"=hex(2):5c,00,5c,00,76,00,65,00,73,00,74,00,61,00,5c,00,64,00,65,00,\

73,00,6b,00,74,00,6f,00,70,00,24,00,00,00

[witch]

i couldnt get redirected desktop to work properly without "forcing" it with a .reg script -

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\bux\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders]

 

"Desktop"=hex(2):5c,00,5c,00,76,00,65,00,73,00,74,00,61,00,5c,00,64,00,65,00,\

73,00,6b,00,74,00,6f,00,70,00,24,00,00,00

I'm sure you are right but I have no idea what that means - does it have to be applied to every machine or is it in a policy or what?

My desktop was fine - the only thing that has never worked is the corporate desktop in Windows 7 - the redirected desktop is fine but the background is black

I really want to know why this isnt working for new users, but STILL WORKING FOR OLD ONES

[Patrickv]

I am thinking it can be anything. I am just spit balling here of some things to think about.

* Any major changes to LDAP and group policy structure.

* Security Permissions on the policy or the OU.

* Not having the GP enforce flag true.

* Security Groups only on the applied policy - eg on run the policy if security group matched.

* Windows Updates on server or desktop. <- My Main likely guess.

* Invalid SID's

* Reboot of server or services don't help.

* Corrupted LDAP.

* Recreating that policy over again.

* Constant updating of the policy.

 

Have you tried to setup a test zone. Create a new OU and policy outside the one that is causing the problem and test the desktop redirection. That's what I do to find where the loop hole in the tree branch.

 

Regards,

Patrick

Edited May 25, 2012 by Patrickv

[witch]

No major changes to anything. In fact, no changes at all

As I said, I can't see that it is anything to do with the policy because the rest of it works fine - things like staff permissions on drives etc

Can't be updates on a machine as it is affecting the users, not a machine

Will look into server updates

I put the new users in a separate OU and tried them with both the standard policy AND the new one with just the redirection. Now I will put one of the other users in there too, to see if they pick up the redirect or not

[Bruce123]

No major changes to anything. In fact, no changes at all

As I said, I can't see that it is anything to do with the policy because the rest of it works fine - things like staff permissions on drives etc

Can't be updates on a machine as it is affecting the users, not a machine

Will look into server updates

I put the new users in a separate OU and tried them with both the standard policy AND the new one with just the redirection. Now I will put one of the other users in there too, to see if they pick up the redirect or not

 

Hi Witch,

 

When folder redirection gets applied to a user it modifies the values contained within the following key for this user

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

 

By default Desktop value will be %USERPROFILE%\Desktop, but with redirection enabled it should be whatever you set it to in the GPO (i.e. "\\server\share\folder")

 

At each logon these values are read by Windows and are then copied into

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

 

And any environment various are expanded to their actual value.

 

These are the effective shell folders used by Windows for that user during a logon session.

 

It may be worth logging on as a user and using reg editor to drill down to check what they are actually set to.

 

You'll probably find that the Desktop value has not been changed from the default (in User Shell Folders and Shell Folders), meaning for whatever reason the GPO setting is not being applied at logon.

 

The reason redirection works for existing users but not new users could be that the registry entry has already been changed in their ntuser.dat (assuming local or roaming profiles), so even when you take away the policy, Folder Redirection is still enabled for these users. But new users won't have it applied.

 

As mentioned by another helpful user, one possible cause could be that an update or something else on has prevented Folder Redirection (or may be all User settings) from applying at logon. A simple check would be to look for errors in the Application Event log on the desktop PCs. And there is also a Group Policy processing log on the PC if you really want to delve into a problem.

 

One other possibility is that there is a file replication problem between your DCs and the changes you are making on one DC aren't being replicated to the another DC that is being used by the clients for authentication/group policy. And the initial problem could have been caused by a corruption of the file within the group policy object that enabled the folder redirection policy. It's a long shot but worth looking into; look for DFS/FRS errors in the event log on all of your DCs.

 

These are just two possibilities, there are of course many other possible causes / avenues of investigation which fellow Edugeekers have already mentioned

 

Regards,

 

Bruce.

[bodminman]

Is there a folder permission (to the redirected desktop) issue for this particular user?

[witch]

Is there a folder permission (to the redirected desktop) issue for this particular user?

 

But where? I have checked and rechecked the user details with one that works and can see nothing different - unless i am looking in the wrong place?