Strange Mandatory profile behavior

[Pat Wisch]

Hello,

I work in a university computer lab, One of the ways we locked down
public workstations in Windows 2000 was through the use of mandatory
profiles.

I am preparing to roll out new Windows XP SP1 desktops in the lab and
I wanted to continue using mandatory profiles. However, I've noticed
a difference in behavior with the mandatory profiles in Windows XP.

Basically the steps I go through are as follows:

1. Set up the user profile the way I want it to look.
2. Logged in as administrator, in the user profile, rename ntuser.dat
to ntuser.man
3. Copy the profile to a server share using copy profiles in the user
profiles section of System Properties.
4. Set the profile path in the user's account settings on the W2K
domain controller.

When the user logs in, they get the mandatory profile. Any changes
the user makes are not saved when the user logs off. Works like
advertised.

The strange thing I've noticed, is that after a reboot, the user's
profile folder on the local system is gone. This did not happen wirh
W2K. Of course, if I log in as the user, the profile gets downloaded
from the server.

Why this change in behavior? I am concerned that if one of the
desktops had a flaky network connection, there would be no locally
cached profile, thus the user would get the default profile, which may
not be the way I would like it. I could copy the user's profile to
the default profile, but then there is one more thing to remember.

Any light you could shed on this would be appreciated

 

[techguru100]

Not sure exactly what it is, but it may be to free up disk
space, because the profiles are the same for both the
cached (local) and server (central). I noticed the same
behavior with Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.

 

[Pat Wisch]

That's interesting.....I haven't seen it on any of my Windows 2000 SP4
boxes..... the local mandatory profile stays put.