Resource Page for Windows Server 2003 Administration Series Webcast (Part 3 of 12)

The following five folders have been identified as the key folders that you can redirect to preserve important user data and settings. There are a number of advantages to redirecting each of these folders. The usefulness of each varies according to your organizations' needs. The folders that can be redirected are:

· Application Data

- Question: Even though you recommend "redirecting" this folder, how are the default settings, per the initial installation, applied to the <username>\NTUSER.DAT file and the "roamed" at any/ever workstation to which the user logs on?

· My Documents

· My Pictures

· Desktop

- Question: Even though you recommend "redirecting" this folder, how are the default settings, per the initial installation, applied to the <username>\NTUSER.DAT file and the "roamed" at any/ever workstation to which the user logs on?

· Start Menu


What about the following folders:
· <username>\Favorites, as I would like this to "roam" with me?

· <username>\Local Settings: I assume you exclude this altogether, as has the IE Temporary Internet and Temp folders here.

· <username>\PrintHood: What about "roaming" my printer settings wherever I go, instead of having to default to the local machine, unless I want this in addition to my current printer?

Leon,

The folders you mention are all a part of the profile, and if roaming, they will all appear to "follow" the user. However, things like My Documents and Desktop tend to collect lots of things - so that a roaming profile login and the sychronization that has to occur (even against a locally cached copy of the profile) can slow logins and logouts down.

So we recommend redirecting these using Group Policy mainbly as a way of avoiding that overhead. You're still taking advantage of the "follows me anywhere" aspects of the data. AND, it's important to also have enabled Offline Folders for wherever you're storing these, so that the data will still be availble on the local machine even if you're not connected to the server.

Favorites do roam.

Local Settings are usually data from applications that does not roam well; usually because it's larger (like Outlook Personal Folder files or Cached Internet pages.) In this case, that's what "local" means: stuff that will be kept local.

As for Printers, it makes sense that they wouldn't be roaming, because printer configuration has a lot to do with what drivers are installed on the local machine. I've only played with this briefly, so I know that a locally defined printer doesn't roam.

Have anyone of you tried to see if a network printer connection will roam?