2k & XP cross-platform profiles..

[coleford]

Hi Guys

I'm using one central mandatory profile created on a W2k-Pro machine but it takes up to 5 minutes for the profile to load on an XP machine - and profiles created on XP take an age to load on 2K-pro!!

Any ideas appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Coleford

 

[bcastner]

from an old MS Technet article:

The speed of the logon is directly related the size of the profile and the speed of the network. There are a number of things that you can do to limit the size of the profile:

. Use Folder redirection. Redirect large folders such as My Documents this will reduce the amount of data copied to/from the computer at logon and logoff.

. Exclude large folders from the profile. By default large folders such as Local Settings, Temp and Temporary Internet Files folders do not roam. You can use the "Exclude directories in roaming profile" Group Policy Setting to add new folders to the exclusion list; once included in the policy these folders will not be copied to the local machine at logon, nor copied back to the server at logoff.

. Set the Slow Network timeout appropriately if you're logging on over a slow link. When a slow link is detected, the system uses the locally cached profile, rather than copying the profile from the server.

. Don't save large files inside the user profile.

My guess is that Folder redirection would be the biggest saving in time for you. It will be slightly tricky to setup, but have the biggest bang.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...l=/technet/itcommunity/Newsgroups/UPFRfaq.asp

 

[coleford]

Thanks for the reply bcastner but sadly this is not a size/speed issue. The profile is only about 700kb and I am already using folder redirection. The profile loads instantly on all W2k-Pro machines.

This is seems to be more in the direction of how XP is interpreting and implementing the profile - it will load profiles created on XP, across the network, instantly - whereas when you try to load profiles created on 2k-Pro it sits on the 'Loading your personal settings' stage for around five minutes.

Profiles created on XP do the same when you try to load them on 2k-Pro machines.

 

[bcastner]

3. Asynchronous processing of logon commands.

You may experience extremely long delays (up to 5 minutes) when logging into domains using Windows XP Pro. This is caused by the asyncronous loading of networking during the boot up process. This speeds up the login process in a stand-alone workstation by allowing the user to log in with cached logon credentials before the network is fully ready.

To disable this "feature" and restore your domain logons to their normal speed, open the MMC and add the group policy snap-in. Under Computer Configuration-->Administrative Templates-->System-->Logon, change "Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon" to ENABLED.

This can be fed to clients via a group policy from a Windows 2000 server by upgrading the standard policy template with the XP policy template. Since this is an XP only command, non-XP systems will ignore it in a domain distributed group policy.

From faq779-4017

 

[coleford]

Thanks bcastner - logons are fine when the user account is using a profile that has been created in XP - when you try to logon an account that uses a profile created on 2k-Pro it sits on the 'Loading your personal settings' stage for an age.

Coleford

 

[bcastner]

Important
If you use UDP for Kerberos, your client computer may stop responding (hang) when you receive the following message:
Loading your personal settings.

By default, Windows 2000 and Windows XP use UDP when the data can be fit in packets under 2,000 bytes. Any data above this value uses TCP to carry the packets. The value of 2,000 bytes is configurable by modifying a registry key and value.

Workaround:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=244474