Laurence
08-07-2002, 12:51 AM
We are looking for a way to manage Windows NT/2000 user profiles that :
1. Lets the IT staff create a standard user profile for all users on a LAN,
and deploy that profile to all users with minimum (preferably no) work on
the users end (the IT staff all work in the corporate headquarters and we
have 21 regional offices on a wide area network)
2. Lets users modify their profile (e.g. can add desktop shortcuts)
3. When changes need to be made to the standard user profile, the IT staff
can make the change and deploy the changes to all the users, again with
minimum (preferably no) work on the users end
Our current solution is based on roaming profiles:
1. We have a login called 'template' on every domain. We log into the domain
remotely as template, set up this user's profile as we want the standard one
to be, log out and use the Copy To button in Control Panel/System/User
Profiles to copy template's profile to the NetLogon shareDefault User
folder on the domain controller.
2. Then with all the users logged out, we connect to every workstation on
the domain and delete all the user profiles plus 'Default User (Network)'
from the Profiles folder.
3. We also delete all the user profiles from the Profiles share on the
server (the location specified in the field 'User Profile Path' in the
users' Windows accounts.
4. Then we let all the users log on again, and everyone gets a new profile
that is a copy of the standard one. Sometimes this doesn't work, and we have
to delete the users Windows account and recreate it in order to get a new
profile that is a copy of the standard one!
As you can see, this is very labor intensive, and an interuption to the
users. I had thought that all we needed to do was (1) above and the changes
would replicate to the user profiles, but no.
We don't want to go to mandatory profiles because we want each user to be
able to customize their profile to some extent. We also don't want to go to
local profiles because their are dozens of settings we want to control.
All users have Full Control over their profile folder on the workstation and
on the server. The profile share on the server is Users - Change.
Is there an easy way to do this???
1. Lets the IT staff create a standard user profile for all users on a LAN,
and deploy that profile to all users with minimum (preferably no) work on
the users end (the IT staff all work in the corporate headquarters and we
have 21 regional offices on a wide area network)
2. Lets users modify their profile (e.g. can add desktop shortcuts)
3. When changes need to be made to the standard user profile, the IT staff
can make the change and deploy the changes to all the users, again with
minimum (preferably no) work on the users end
Our current solution is based on roaming profiles:
1. We have a login called 'template' on every domain. We log into the domain
remotely as template, set up this user's profile as we want the standard one
to be, log out and use the Copy To button in Control Panel/System/User
Profiles to copy template's profile to the NetLogon shareDefault User
folder on the domain controller.
2. Then with all the users logged out, we connect to every workstation on
the domain and delete all the user profiles plus 'Default User (Network)'
from the Profiles folder.
3. We also delete all the user profiles from the Profiles share on the
server (the location specified in the field 'User Profile Path' in the
users' Windows accounts.
4. Then we let all the users log on again, and everyone gets a new profile
that is a copy of the standard one. Sometimes this doesn't work, and we have
to delete the users Windows account and recreate it in order to get a new
profile that is a copy of the standard one!
As you can see, this is very labor intensive, and an interuption to the
users. I had thought that all we needed to do was (1) above and the changes
would replicate to the user profiles, but no.
We don't want to go to mandatory profiles because we want each user to be
able to customize their profile to some extent. We also don't want to go to
local profiles because their are dozens of settings we want to control.
All users have Full Control over their profile folder on the workstation and
on the server. The profile share on the server is Users - Change.
Is there an easy way to do this???