Trimming the size of profiles

[zag]

We use roaming profiles for all our users and I have recently noticed they are getting pretty big for some year groups. This puts pressure on the server each and every time they log on. Some students profiles are approaching 50mb+

 

Is there a way to trim profiles, or even better do it automatically?

 

How do I stop the profiles being copied back from the client machines?

 

Cheers.

Edited April 22, 2008 by zag

[Ryan]

Due to the nature of roaming profiles, they need to be copied back to the server to update the changes made during that session.

 

We use roaming profiles too, and am strongly considering using mandatory profiles. We get the occasional issue with roaming profiles which screws things up.

 

Redirection may be an option for you though.

[srochford]

What's in the profile that's taking up the space? If you are not redirecting "my documents" and "application data" then just redirecting those two folders will save a huge amount of data being copied at logon/off (doesn't save space because it's still on the server but it will speed up logon/off times)

[flyinghaggis]

We've got the same issue. Generally most pupils profiles are pretty small (<10Mb) but there are a few problem apps on the network (mostly Adobe, Macromedia and Ulead ) which literally bulk up a pupils/staff profile to around 40-50Mb if puplils run them.

Would be good to know if there's any way around this though I'm guessing without doctoring the program installers registry settings or writing fancy logoff scripts there probably isnt a solution other than the obbious which is to regress back to mandatory profiles?

[zag]

What's in the profile that's taking up the space? If you are not redirecting "my documents" and "application data" then just redirecting those two folders will save a huge amount of data being copied at logon/off (doesn't save space because it's still on the server but it will speed up logon/off times)

 

I have investigated and its the application data folder that is taking up all the space. Mostly from Microsoft(10mb) and Macromedia settings(17mb).

 

How do I redirect application data, or can I make it read only? What are the implications of doing this?

[richard.thomas]

You may aswell go to mandatory profile. This way it's read-only and non of the students can make changes. We use them here for our students, nice and small

[Ryan]

to regress back to mandatory profiles?

 

Can i ask - did you go from mandatory to roaming? If so, what were your reasons?

[Michael]

I always use mandatory roaming profiles for pupils (NTUSER.MAN) and standard roaming profiles for staff. It makes a big difference and saves lots of disk space too.

 

There are also some GPOs that allow you to tweak settings related to a profile size:

 

User Config > Admin Templates > System > User Profiles

 

And

 

Comp Config > Admin Templates > System > User Profiles

[zag]

I've had a brainwave

 

I'm just going to delete all the profiles from the network share and student client computers each year and let the system recreate them.

[Michael]

You could do this, but remember Favourites are contained in the profile, unless you've redirected them to My Documents (for example).

[elsiegee40]

You could do this, but remember Favourites are contained in the profile, unless you've redirected them to My Documents (for example).

 

 

Redirect to My Documents! Yes, please! How did you do this?

[Michael]

With Windows Vista you can do this by GPO, but with 2000, XP, 2003 you'll need to modify the registry.

 

This guide should be what you're looking for

[jcollings]

I've had a brainwave

 

I'm just going to delete all the profiles from the network share and student client computers each year and let the system recreate them.

 

We tend to do this on a termly basis. It's a good way to give folks a clean start.

[meastaugh1]

Redirect to My Documents! Yes, please! How did you do this?

 

I used this adm to redirect with group policy.

[elsiegee40]

Thanks Michael and meastaugh1; I'll give these a read.

[cookie_monster]

We redirect the application data folder to the server using folder redirection and then use a default profile in the netlogon folder to provide basic application settings. The desktop and start menu is provided by using folder redirection as well. We only give staff a redirected profile the students get a new profile at each logon which is much faster and lower load on the server.

 

 

We use this in our logon script to change the faves location

 

WSHShell.RegWrite "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Favorites", "U:\Favorites", "REG_EXPAND_SZ"
WSHShell.RegWrite "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Favorites", "U:\Favorites", "REG_SZ"

[zag]

We tend to do this on a termly basis. It's a good way to give folks a clean start.

 

Is there a quick way of deleting the locally cached profiles on client pcs?

[cookie_monster]

logon locally in safe mode

 

That's odd, that usually implies that a process is holding the files open e.g spyware progs and the like. Unless it's those pescy java temp files that are created with only the users permissions on so admins and system can't delete them, in that case you have to take ownership then delete them.

[gshaw]

We use this in our logon script to change the faves location

 

WSHShell.RegWrite "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Favorites", "U:\Favorites", "REG_EXPAND_SZ"
WSHShell.RegWrite "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Favorites", "U:\Favorites", "REG_SZ"

 

Nice I like the look of that, our admin staff have roaming profiles and there's a rather odd logon \ logoff script copying favourites from local to network and vice versa, this seems a bit more elegant

 

Some apps can make profiles can fly up, I tested out Second Life on my office PC and it sent the profile up over 1GB

 

Mandatory profiles for students is much better imo...