Roaming Profiles - Replacement Functionality Using Software

[cpeek]

We have been using roaming profiles to provide some basic consistency
across machines. The roaming profiles have become a source of constant
issues, most dealing with either growing size or corruption.

The roaming profiles are used to make the following items custom to the
user on the client machines as they move from machine to machine:
mapped drives, network printers, Outlook profiles, and IE Favorites.
We are a medium size site with 80+ Windows 2000/2003 servers, 25+
Windows 2003 active directory PDCs/BDCs, 3400 users, and about 2700
client machines mixed between Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Two solutions we have looked at for replacing the functionality
provided by roaming profiles are:
1) Desktop Standard's PolicyMaker
(http://www.desktopstandard.com/PolicyMakerStandard.aspx)
2) Scriptlogic's Desktop Authority
(http://www.scriptlogic.com/products/desktopauthority/)

Can anyone suggest any other tools that would be good to look at?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

We have been using roaming profiles to provide some basic
consistency across machines. The roaming profiles have become a
source of constant issues, most dealing with either growing size or
corruption.

The roaming profiles are used to make the following items custom to
the user on the client machines as they move from machine to
machine: mapped drives, network printers, Outlook profiles, and IE
Favorites. We are a medium size site with 80+ Windows 2000/2003
servers, 25+ Windows 2003 active directory PDCs/BDCs, 3400 users,
and about 2700 client machines mixed between Windows 2000 and
Windows XP.

Two solutions we have looked at for replacing the functionality
provided by roaming profiles are:
1) Desktop Standard's PolicyMaker
(http://www.desktopstandard.com/PolicyMakerStandard.aspx)
2) Scriptlogic's Desktop Authority
(http://www.scriptlogic.com/products/desktopauthority/)

Can anyone suggest any other tools that would be good to look at?

Thanks in advance.

If you limit what roaming profiles upload/download through group policies
(like not transfering cookies/temporary internet files/etc) - they work
great. You may want to look into tweaking your roaming profile setup before
you start using a third party solution. =)

 

[cpeek]

We have worked diligently to eliminate the common problem folders. We
have focused on the ones that cause regular size issues and redirected
them to using network shares. However as some of the folders are
removed from the roaming profile (i.e. Desktop), we start to lose some
of the functionality that roaming profiles are supposed to provide.
Also on users that use a laptop to connect via a VPN, then with a
redirected desktop the machine begins to act very flakey at best.

One other thing I forgot to add was the speed issues at some of our
remote sites connected via a WAN. When the user logs in from somewhere
other than there home site (a common occurrence for us) and has a small
roaming profile, the login times are several minutes at best and can be
upwards of 12 to 15 minutes.