Redirection of all folders not working

[Neil Loffhagen]

Hi,

I' reposting this as it got tagged to the end of another thread, and was
not completely related to that subject.

This has been puzzling me for some time now. We have been tasked with
setting up roaming profiles to do the following, which I think is
possible, but if not can someone me know if we're wasting our time:

The idea is that a user can logon to any machine in the network and be
able to immediately open Outlook and view their mail/calendars without
any local configuration. For example a new user has been created and
has to share a PC with a colleague. Can things be set up so that he
justs logins for the first time on a PC and be able to open Outlook and
see his mail/calenders/etc. with nothing needing to be done locally on
the PC? If so the question is how?

We have set up a Group Policy which is supposed to redirect the
Applications, Desktop, Start Menu, My Documents to folders on the
Server. The Desktop, Start Menu, My Documents seems to work, as when a
new user logons on to the network new folders are created on the Server
for them. But no new folder is created for Applications. The folders
are all under the same share and have the same permissions.

Have setup a logon script that works through the Group Policy.

When a user then logons on to another machine I'd have thought that the
Desktop should then follow him? But it doesn't. The desktop looks the
same as the last person who was on the machine. The My Documents does
not copy either. When you logout a window appears saying it is syncing,
so stuff is being written to the Server but not back. When you look in
Event Viewer it has events for data bring copied from the PC to the
Server, but never the other way round.

I've no doubt missed out some simple step, and would greatly appreciate
any pointers in the right direction.

Or am I misunderstanding what Group Policies is supposed to be able to do?

Many many thanks,

Neil.

 

[Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]]

Neil,

in-line...

Hi,

I' reposting this as it got tagged to the end of another thread, and was
not completely related to that subject.

This has been puzzling me for some time now. We have been tasked with
setting up roaming profiles to do the following, which I think is
possible, but if not can someone me know if we're wasting our time:

The idea is that a user can logon to any machine in the network and be
able to immediately open Outlook and view their mail/calendars without
any local configuration. For example a new user has been created and
has to share a PC with a colleague. Can things be set up so that he
justs logins for the first time on a PC and be able to open Outlook and
see his mail/calenders/etc. with nothing needing to be done locally on
the PC? If so the question is how?

Yes, this very much can be done. All you have to do is deploy all software
via GPO. I would think that most of the software could be installed to the
user-configuration side of things. In order to get a fully functional
Office 2000 or Office XP without any user interaction you need to use the
..mst files that come when you install the ORKTOOLS.exe. This is the Office
Resecoure Kit. It is a 17-step process that allows you to configure a ton
of things - one of which is the 'Exchange' related information. I have done
this a good number of times. User logs on and via the magic of GPO has all
the software that he/she needs without any configuration requirements. I
might also suggest that you take a look at the Office .adm files which allow
you to create GPOs for a great number of the individul settings that make
changes to MS Word, MS Excel, MS Outlook, MS PowerPoint and MS Access. Make
those changes in one place and away you go! I might sugges that you install
the ORKTOOLS on a workstation and then copy the .adm files over to the
server.

We have set up a Group Policy which is supposed to redirect the
Applications, Desktop, Start Menu, My Documents to folders on the
Server. The Desktop, Start Menu, My Documents seems to work, as when a
new user logons on to the network new folders are created on the Server
for them. But no new folder is created for Applications. The folders
are all under the same share and have the same permissions.

I might suggest that you re-think this. I typically set up four separate
folders. I like to use \\servername\appdata\%username% for the Application
Data, \\servername\desktop\%username% for the desktop,
\\servername\startmnu\%username for the Start Memu and
\\servername\MyDocs\%username for the My Documents ( and I typically make
the My Pictures follow the My Documents folder ). Putting everything in one
folder might cause you some problems. There have been a few posts in here
recently about this *mess*.

Have setup a logon script that works through the Group Policy.

Usually - in a WIN2000+ environment - a good thing. I like to use .vbs
logon scripts.

 

[Rich]

Try using mandatory profiles.
What you do is create the user; make sure you have a
common shared "profiles" folder somewhere that all the
servers can see (I use the DC); make sure the profile path
is in the person's user properties; login and configure
the user; after logging out, check the user's profile
folder; if the files are all there (especially
ntuser.dat); once you have that file in the user's profile
folder, rename it to NTUSER.MAN. You'll get a warning,
but don't worry about it.
Once you create the NTUSER.MAN, log back into the terminal
server as the user and it should lock their profile down.
One of the drawbacks is if you have to do any changes to
the user, you have to delete their profile on the terminal
server, rename NETUSER.MAN to NTUSER.DAT; log back in and
do all the changes then do the renaming of the DAT file,
etc again. It's great for users who do not change that
often.

Good Luck!