Roaming User Profile : Setup and Usage

Why do you require roaming user profiles :

When a user roams from one computer to other and if he wants his settings (technically called the profile) to exist the same on any computer he logs in, then one has to go for Roaming Profiles.

Let me give an example here : I am a user A who has configured my desktop with some settings of my choice. Now when I log off this machine and log into some other machine, using the same user then the same settings should exist. I need not have to configure my settings again. This not only saves a lot of time, but will help you feel comfortable on any computer you log into. Ideally what happens is, when logging off, the user profiles are copied to a server. When they log on to another computer, the profile information, including any Start menu customizations and the contents of the My Documents folder, is copied to the other computer.

Lets jump into creating a RP :

Assumption is that I do not have a Domain User Account: (so first lets create a domain user account)

1. Log into your Domain Machine as Administrator.
2. Go to Start->Administrative Tools->Active Directory Users and Computers.
3. Traverse to Users container. Right click and select User.
4. Here give the Domain User Name and click on Next.

Now Give the Password and select “Password Never Expires” and uncheck “Account is disabled”.

Click on Next to finish the Wizard. (Here I have created a user named RoamUser)

Now that we have an user. Lets create a Roaming Profile for this User.

For this, create a folder named Roam in the machine and share the folder. For this right click on the folder and select Properties. Now go to Sharing Tab.

Now click on Permissions button. Click on Everyone and give Full control.

Once done, click on Apply button.

Now go to Security Tab and see that the Domain Users have Write permissions.

Once done, click on Apply and then on OK.

Now make sure you are able to access the shared folder in the network. From any of the machine give the share location to see if the folder is getting accessed or not.

Now go back to Start->Administrative Tools->Active Directory Users and Computers->Users

Right click on the User that you have just created and go to properties. Here now go to Profile tab and type in “\\sgdomain\roam\%username%. (Here the domain machine name is sgdomain, the shared folder name is Roam and %username% will automatically create a new folder for every domain user who has Roaming Profile configured.

Here in this case, when User RoamUser logs in and makes changes and logs off, a new folder by the name RoamUser will be created under \\sgdomain\roam\. This is used to differentiate every user with a different directory.

End-User Experience :

Now on a Machine 1, I have logged in using the roaming profile user RoamUser and made some changes. I have changed the way Start Menu looks and created a new text document under “My Documents”.

Once done I have logged off and I have now logged into other machine, say Machine2. Here I have logged in as RoamUser. Here the same settings for RoamUser persisted and also the MyDocuments folder had the document (Gautham.txt) that I have initially created when I was logged in Machine1 as RoamUser.

Hurray!!!!! The settings are roaming from one machine to other.

Also go to Domain shared folder (\\sgdomain\roam\) to see if the folder named “RoamUser” is created or not.

Thanks for going through the post. Please drop your comments over it.
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