Read-only profile on XP pro workstation

[Guest]

I have numerous XP pro workstations in a domain with a Windows 2003 server as
the DC. These PCs are grouped into different roles with users floating in
between the groups.

What I would like to accomplish is a read only mandatory profile for each
group of workstations. I am attempting to elminate or mitigate the local
workstation administration, where I have to add a domain user to multiple
machines.

What I have done so far is create a profile, place it in the "default user"
profile on the local machine and any user is able to log in to this group of
PCs and complete the set of tasks associated with that department. My
problem is that the profile is not read-only, the are able to make changes
and save these changes.

Any suggestions would be great. I am open to alternate method to solve this
issue.

 

[Guest]

I take it you want the computer to behave the same at log-on no matter who
logs-on to it, and all changes made to be lost at log-off? In that case a
mandatory roaming-profile is what you want. This need not be on the server,
it can be loaded from a folder on the same computer if that is faster.

http://tinyurl.com/ndjm5

Note in particular the renaming of ntuser.dat to .man That is what prevents
the profile being saved back when the user logs-off.

If you're in a domain you shouldn't need to add users to multiple machines,
just to the server. If (as it seems from your description) you're not on
adomain, then implementing MyLogon might save a lot of donkey-work.