Roaming User Profiles in Mixed Environments

Roaming User Profiles in Mixed Environments Roaming users move between different computers in a mixed network environment.
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Roaming User Profiles in Mixed EnvironmentsRoaming User Profiles in Mixed EnvironmentsRoaming users move between different computers in a mixed network environment. Toachieve this, you will need to create roaming user profiles, and then enable and configureprofile information for each of the roaming users in your organization. When you enableroaming and specify a network share for roaming files, some files and foldersautomatically roam with the users. This makes the user files available to roaming users,regardless of the client computer from which the user logs on to the domain. Creating andenabling a roaming user profile is a two-step procedure: 1. Create and configure a test user profile. 2. Copy the test user profile to a network server.Note Before enabling roaming user profiles, it is recommended that you consider the important point of application compatibility. The underlying reason is straightforward, although, strangely enough, overlooked. The problem is that some new features and functionality available in newer versions of applications might be unavailable to users who have earlier versions of the same applications. This, of course, becomes a source of confusion in networks that use a mix of different versions of the same application. One such example is Microsoft Outlook 2002, since some of its features are unavailable to the users of Outlook 2000. Therefore, if you are using Microsoft Outlook as a mail client, it is recommended that you ensure that the same version of the application is used in a single area (such as a domain), or at least perform a centralized upgrade.To create a test profile for a roaming user on a client computer running Windows 2000,Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003, follow these steps: 1. Log on as Administrator, open the Administrative Tools applet and click the Computer Management icon. 2. In the console tree, expand Local Users and Groups, right-click Users and select the New User command from the right-click menu. 3. When the New User window opens (Fig. 10.10), type in a name and password for the user, then clear the User must change password at next logon checkbox. Click Create, and then click Close. Figure 10.10: Creating a test user account 4. Quit the Computer Management snap-in and log off the computer. 5. Log on as the test user account that you have just created. A user profile is automatically created on the local computer in the %SystemDrive%Documents and SettingsUsername folder (where Username is the name of the new user account that you have just created). 6. Configure the desktop environment, including appearance, shortcuts, Start menu options, etc. 7. Log off, and then log on as Administrator.After creating a test profile, you need to copy it to a network server. To achieve this goal,proceed as follows: 1. Create an account for the administrative user on the Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 PDC (use Active Directory Users and Computers for this purpose). This user will be the administrator of the user profiles. Also create a shared directory for storing user profiles, for example: \Server_nameProfiles. Within this shared folder, create a user_name folder for each user. 2. Copy the roaming profile that you have created and configured, to the user_name folder(s) on the network server. To do so, log on as Administrator on the client workstation, open the User Profiles window (see Fig. 10.8), select the profile that you want to configure as roaming from the Profiles stored on this computer list, and click the Copy To button. In the Copy To dialog (see Fig. 10.9), click the Browse button and specify the path using the UNC (Universal Naming Convention) format (for example: \Server_nameProfilesuser_name). If the folder doesnt exist, it will be created. 3. On the Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 PDC, start the Active Directory Users and Computers MMS snap-in. In the console tree, expand the Domain node, and then click the folder where users are located (typically, the Users folder). In the list of user names, right-click the name of the user whom you are going to configure for roaming, and then click Properties. Go to the Profile tab (Fig. 10.11). Figure 10.11: Configuring a user profile for roaming 4. For clients running Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003, go to the Profile Path field in the User Profile group. Type in the full path to the user profile folder that you have created for the roaming profile of that user (for example, \Server_nameProfilesuser_name. For clients running Windows 9x/ME, set the Connect radio button and type the full path to the user folder into the T ...