Installing from the ground up, local and domain accounts

[Cindy Winegarden]

I have a small amount of experience using Vista at home, but not with a
domain.

I will be getting a new machine for my job with Vista Business installed. My
desktop support group is relatively inexperienced with Vista and they will
allow me to format and reinstall the OS and then all my software (Office,
Visual Studio, etc.) so that I won't have any of the junk the OEM installs.
Eventually the machine will be joined to our domain.

During my install my thought is to create a local "Cindy" account with admin
rights, as I've done on my XP machines, and then install all my developer
software. After I've got it the way I want it I'll then have the machine
joined to the domain, which will create an account with my domain login,
cwinegarden, also with admin permissions on the machine. This way if there's
something in my install I don't like I can start over without bothering my
desktop support team.

Is there any problem with installing all the software under the Cindy
account and then using it with the cwinegarden domain account, or is there a
reason I should have them join me to the domain first and then install all
the software? If I start out by installing a local cwinegarden account will
joining to the domain create a cwinegarden.1 account (which I don't want to
happen)?

As far as I know, the domain account will have it's own set of directories.
Is there any (easy) way to have the cindy and cwinegarden accounts share
Documents, Downloads, etc.?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Fletcher James]

The obvious thing woujld be to join the domain first, and then install all
of your development software as cwinegarten. You sound like you know what
you're doing, so I assume there's some good reason you would rather not do
that.

I would be curious to see if somebody does know how to get two user accounts
to share a profile.

Otherwise, one thing you can do is to copy the user profile from cindy to
cwinegarten, using Computer | Properties | Advanced System Settings | User
Profiles. You would need to be logged under a 3rd admin account to do this,
and of course it's a 1-shot copy, not a permanent sharing.

--
Fletcher James
President
Levit & James, Inc.

(703)771-1549
MailTo:[email protected]
http://www.levitjames.com

 

[Cindy Winegarden]

Hi Fletcher,

My thought was that I might run into some problems and wanted to get a good
install of all my software before bothering my support group. You're
probably right though, I should get them to join me to the domain as part of
the install, and then install everything else.

Yes, I know I can copy a profile. Like you, I'm also curious whether two
users can share a profile. Thanks for your help.

--
Cindy Winegarden
(e-mail address removed)


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[JRB Associates]

Cindy,

You have touched on what is really a series of issues. Fletcher is certainly
correct, that you can logon under a third admin account and perform a one
time copy of the profile, but then what? I use Vista domain-joined and it
has worked without difficulty. I normally use either Business or Ultimate
and they work just fine in the domain setting. The domain is Windows 2003
r2, so your milage may vary. There are so many things to think about, some
of which are independent, others related to varing degrees.

Most likely, you will be able to install programs under one account and run
them under another. Almost always, the issue comes down to where the icons
are created, but there can be more.

Perhaps the greatest (unknown) issue is how you company domain is
configured. How much configuration is "pushed" out by means of Group Policy?
In my own case, I configured GP to set many things on the client PCs, but
NOT user folders. You will have to determine just what effect your corporate
GP will have.

Having had an organized data structure since well before the advent of the
"My" this and "My" that structure of the past few years, changing where
those settings point has always been something which I do immediately on
configuring a new PC. Ironically, the "TweakUI" PowerToy tool from Microsoft
still (mostly) works under Vista (it is not supported, and the last version
was for XP, 2.10.0.0, which is the version I use for Vista). During the
Vista beta, I found which few settings to avoid (Common Dialogs can cause
trouble). The "My Computer / Special Folders" settings can be changed to
allow redirecting most of them. There are a few which should probably not be
changed, such as "Startup" "Start Menu" "Programs" and "Desktop" but the
others are fair game. You could certainly have multiple accounts point to
the same locations. Again... This is assuming Domain Group Policy does not
make changes here... caveat emptor.

Having done this for many versions of Windows , I can say that it works just
fine. On the other hand I would never recommend it to a client (unless they
first ask). One advantage of Vista, is that System Restore has progressed
quite well. Unless you make a terrible series of mistakes, then recovery is
usually quite easy. That said, you may want to create Restore points
manually, prior to changes (Control Panel / System / System Protection). If
you are thoughtful (which it sounds like you are) and careful, then you
should probably have few problems, just be prepared for some learning, and
have good backups.

Best wishes,
John Baker

 

[Cindy Winegarden]

Hi John,

Thank you for your detailed response.

Perhaps the greatest (unknown) issue is how you company domain is
configured. How much configuration is "pushed" out by means of Group
Policy? In my own case, I configured GP to set many things on the client
PCs, but NOT user folders. You will have to determine just what effect
your corporate GP will have.

Our admins set as little as possible for the user. We have a "home"
directory on the network where we can store stuff and have it backed up, but
nothing is done with (my) Documents on the hard drive.

Having had an organized data structure since well before the advent of the
"My" this and "My" that structure of the past few years, changing where
those settings point has always been something which I do immediately on
configuring a new PC.

I've done a lot of that too - moving the (my) Documents to D:\Documents,
etc. so as to make rebuilding the machine easy. (I've done fairly frequent
rebuilds due to Beta software, and also to get a fresh perspective on life.)

.....You could certainly have multiple accounts point to the same
locations.

I will create a few new accounts on my test Vista machine at home and try
this!

.... If you are thoughtful (which it sounds like you are) and careful,
then you should probably have few problems, just be prepared for some
learning, and have good backups.

My computer knowledge increased exponentially when I got my own computer at
home (as opposed to a shared family computer) and was able to experiment
without fear of messing things up for everybody else. Never underestimate
the value of "breaking" things!