Profiles in XP!

[Dagk]

Hi,

I have users on XP PC's that log on to an Active Directory domain on a Windows 2000 server. I am currently setting up an image of an XP installation to blast across a number of new PC's recently purchased. My query is regarding the default user profile. There is one on the C drive of the PC and one on the C drive of the W2K server. When a user logs onto to the domain do they pick up the default user profile settings from the default user on the PC's C drive or from the default user profile settings on the servers C drive. Or is it a combination of the two? I want to create a default user profile for all users but I am not sure where I should copy this profile to. Any suggestions?

 

[vickero007]

When logging into an AD Domain the profile comes from the local computer, unless the user has a roaming profile which would then reside on the server. You can check that by checking the user's properties in AD Users & Computers.

What type of default profile do you want? One that saves XP display info and folders like profiles on non-networked machines. Or profile like in Active Directory?

The latter is best done by creating a user template (a user that is configured in AD the way you want all of the users to be). It's best to name that user with a _ in from like _UserTemplate so when usernames are sorted it is at the top. Then you just right click that template and choose copy, fill in the appropriate information and repeat until you have added all of your users.

-Volkoff007

 

[Niall22]

In a Windows NT domain the default profile is copied from the NT server's NETLOGON share. All you have to do is set up a profile the way you want it and create a "Default User" folder in the NETLOGON share and copy it there.

I'm assuming it would be the same or similar in Windows 2000. However, if there is no default profile located on the server, Windows XP will use the default profile that is stored locally on the machine. So you could modify the local default profile and then create your image. Then when your new Windows XP users log in they will automatically grab the local default profile.

It's easier to manage the default profile if you store it on the server because you can make changes to it in one central location. I always store our default profile on on our Domain Controllers for that reason.



Niall