Offline files nightmare -- someone please HELP

[SilvrT]

I have PC's on a LAN. These PC's are on Win XP SP2. They are all new
as of a year ago. For 2 of the users, I cannot stop Offline files.
They (the users) have local profiles on their PC's. I have disabled
caching of the shares and not only that, but the shares and data have
been moved to a new server. These PC's still want to sync offline
files with the old server and those files/shares, etc have all been
moved to a totally different server. I have read and read and read so
much about this that I am worn out. I have removed the PC's from the
domains and unchecked Enable Offline files as that seems the only way
the associated check box is active (or accessible to me). I put the PC
back into the domain and all seems to be fine until I shut the machine
down. Then when I log in (I'm domain admin), the Offline files is
enabled again and I can't get at the check box (greyed out). What the
H%$#!LL is going on??? I do not want these PC's using Offline files.
How do I stop this FOREVER?

Thanks for any help coz after struggling with this for days and days,
I am not getting anywhere.

 

[SilvrT]

I have PC's on a LAN. These PC's are on Win XP SP2. They are all new
as of a year ago. For 2 of the users, I cannot stop Offline files.
They (the users) have local profiles on their PC's. I have disabled
caching of the shares and not only that, but the shares and data have
been moved to a new server. These PC's still want to sync offline
files with the old server and those files/shares, etc have all been
moved to a totally different server. I have read and read and read so
much about this that I am worn out. I have removed the PC's from the
domains and unchecked Enable Offline files as that seems the only way
the associated check box is active (or accessible to me). I put the PC
back into the domain and all seems to be fine until I shut the machine
down. Then when I log in (I'm domain admin), the Offline files is
enabled again and I can't get at the check box (greyed out). What the
H%$#!LL is going on??? I do not want these PC's using Offline files.
How do I stop this FOREVER?

Thanks for any help coz after struggling with this for days and days,
I am not getting anywhere.

Well, I was able to rectify this problem myself so, for the benefit of
others who might be experiencing the same problem, here's what I had
to do...

First of all, the "old" server that offline files was trying to sync
with will be called "OldServer" for reference...

I had to disjoin the domain on the PC and log in as the PC
administrator. This was necessary because for some reason, it was the
only way that the check box for "Enable Offline files" would become
active (it was greyed out otherwise).
I then did a registry search for the server name "OldServer" (you'd
have to use your own server name of course).
For every occurence of that I found, I deleted the registry entry.
NOTE: you're on your own here because in some cases, you may not want
to delete all references. You need to have a good understanding of the
registry.
I also did a search for "Offline" and if I found any references that
pointed to anything associated to "OldServer", I deleted that as well.
I went into Offline Files and ensured the check box for Enable was not
checked. I also deleted any remaining offline files.
Then I ran mobsync and unchecked everything.
Reboot the computer and log back in.
Double check the Offline files settings to make sure everything is
turned off.
Re-join the domain, reboot the computer, log in as the user and check
Offline files settings again.
Do the registry search again, deleting any occurences of "OldServer"
that you find (if you do).
Reboot the computer (do a cold boot), log in as the user, check the
Offline files settings again. Do this a few more times. Should be
fine.

All seems to be working (or should I say, not working) now. Meaning,
Offline files is not attempting to sync with anything.

This all seems to be a really convoluted method to disable something
that should be relatively simple to fix. This PC picked up the Offline
files settings from this user's profile when I replaced his old PC
with this one. Then when I replaced the file server (the old one is
still active for a different reason), moved all the files, re-created
all the shares, etc... his PC was still trying to sync with the old
server. I was only able to get rid of this by the above method.
ggrrrrrrrrrr...