WD Lesson-30

Managing User Profiles and Home Folders

A user profile is a collection of folders and data that stores the user’s current desktop environment, application settings, and personal data.

There are four types of user profiles:

■ Local user profiles

■ Roaming user profiles

■ Mandatory user profiles

■ Temporary user profiles

Local User Profiles

• A local user profile is based at the local computer and is available at only the local computer.
• Windows Server 2003 automatically creates a local user profile the first time that a user logs on to a workstation or server computer.
• A local user profile can be created simply by logging to the computer.

Roaming user profiles

• A roaming user profile is based at the server and is downloaded to the local computer every time a user logs on.  These profiles are created to support users who work at multiple computers.
• Changes made to a user’s roaming user profile are updated locally and on the server when the user logs off. This profile is created by a system administrator and is stored in a shared folder on a server.

Mandatory user profiles

• A mandatory user profile is a read-only roaming profile, based at the server and downloaded to the local computer every time a user logs on. It is used to specify a profile for individuals or an entire group of users.
• Users can modify the desktop settings of the computer while they are logged on, but none of these changes are saved when they log off. Only system administrators can make changes to mandatory user profiles.

Temporary User Profiles

• A temporary user profile is issued any time an error condition prevents a user’s profile from being loaded.
• Temporary profiles are deleted at the end of each session. Changes made to a user’s desktop settings and files are lost when the user logs off.

Creating User Profiles

• Local user profiles can be created simply by logging on.
• Roaming user profiles can be created by assigning a profile to a user account.
• To create mandatory user profiles, we must create a profile template, define a profile template storage location, define a profile, assign a profile to a user account, and configure the profile as mandatory.
• Temporary user profiles are created automatically by the system if there is a problem and therefore cannot be created by an administrator. 

 Home Folders

• A home folder is an additional folder that we can provide for users to store personal documents, and for older applications, it is sometimes the default folder for saving documents.
• We can store a home folder on a client computer or in a shared folder on a file server. Because a home folder is not part of a roaming user profile, its size does not affect network traffic during the logon process.

Storing Home folders on a File server

Storing all home folders on a file server provides the following advantages:

■ Users can gain access to their home folders from any client computer on the network.

■ The backing up and administration of user documents is centralized.

■ The home folders are accessible from a client computer running any Microsoft operating system