Large Terminal Server Profiles

[BridgeRE]

In my environment, users log on and our home grown app automatically runs from a folder on the D drive (partition). Users do not have access to anything in their profile, except that app. (no desktop, apps, etc.) I noticed that the profiles are anywhere from 4-9 MB, this seems a little large, especially when 60-80 users log on. What's are some things I can do to keep these profiles to a minimum, or even possibly delete them after they log off?

 

[baddos]

If they are in the Guest or Domain Guests group, windows will remove the profile at logoff.

 

[BridgeRE]

Hmm, all terminal users are Domain Users and Remote Desktop Users. What is most common? Do most admins set their Terminal Clients as Domain Guests?

 

[baddos]

I personally don't, but that is because I only have about 25 users to worry about. For my environment I created a new group for TS users and setup the ts server to allow that group to connect via TS instead of using the default Remote Desktop Users group. It was just easier for our IT staff that way.

You could try adding one user to the TS server's local Guest group and connect to see how it operates in your environment. Just remember not to add them to the Domain Guests if they have a desktop pc that they use the same account to login for. That would be really fun.

 

[BridgeRE]

They do not, none of my Terminal User's are employees, they have their own computers (where ever they may be). We just host an app for them.

 

[Jbeaudette]

Are they saving anything to that profile? I am going to say the answer is no if you were willing to delete them after they log off.

I would create a single mandatory profile for all of the application users. Then in a policy set Computer\Windows Components\Terminal Services\Terminal Server\Profiles to that mandatory profile path.

The beauty of the mandatory profile is users can change settings while in the environment, but the settings never get saved over the single profile. This approach will mean that you will have 60-80 users accessing one 4-9 MB profile.

You can Google mandatory profiles if you are not sure how to create one.

Good Luck!

 

[BridgeRE]

Thanks, I'll look into it. I'm also rebuilding this 2008 TS from 64BIT to 32BIT, so I have a feeling that the profiles will be smaller. Well they are on my 32BIT 2003 TSs about 400k-800k each.