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user profiles

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govols

IS-IT--Management
Jul 30, 2001
11
US
Can I just have one global user profile in Windows 2000? I am having to give users temp admin access, install software, then remove them from admin. When I install software as admin, the configuration isn't stored for any users. Can I make it work just like 98?
 
global admin means Domain Admin? Or just local computer admin?

You can set on the pc in Control Panel -> Users and access
and just add the person's Domain/User <- username and set that person to Administrator. That way the user can install anything they want on their own pc. But not interfere with any other comp or server.

Domain Admin = Administrator for your own network.
 
Thanks but I do that now. I put the user in local admin temporarily to do the install (I don't want users in admin long term). It is a pain because the user doesn't have access to the installs on the server, etc... I would like to log in as a domain admin install software and move on but I can't because of user profiles?
 
I agree.....I wish Microsoft would ditch profiles. They are so hard to work with.

You should be able to login with admin account or your account and install the software and then find what shortcuts the software placed and be sure that you place these shortcuts in the ALL USERS profile. Sometimes software installs put them there and some times they will use the current logged in profile too. Placing the shorcuts there will make it available to all users who log in after you leave.

Profiles.......who needs em?
I'd really like to do a study. maybe here. How many people use profiles and like them.
Myself, I have never liked them. I may have liked some of the features in concept but trying to manage them far outways the benifits in my opinion. They give me so many problems. Trying to figure them out sometimes gives me nightmares.
my 2 cents(*)(*)
dball63
 
Personally, while I do not like how some of the features are implemented, I like user profiles.

I could always find something wrong, but the degree of control it gives a administrator in a large network seems to me to be worth the hassle. I really like the fact that I can make a user see ONLY what I want them to see. Older programs and badly designed programs are what seems to make User Profiles difficult to deal with. Then you get into the argument of bad design of programs or bad design of OS?

If you need users to install applications you could always use published apps and the install elevated feature of Microsoft Win2k. There are also many third party programs designed exactly for user installs. Veritas WinInstall comes immediately to mind. ZenWorks I believe also does the same thing.

Roger
 
I find the simplest way to accomplish this is to add Domain Users (the primary group for everyone on the network I am admin for) to the Power Users group on the local machine. You can use a Group Policy if you have a 2k Network or if you run NT4 you can use Computer Management from a 2k pro machine with a Domain Admin logon to connect to each machine remotely and make the changes, These will take effect when the user logs off and back on. On the profile issue I agree with Meldric, the control that a network admin has over what the user can see is invaluable (If it can't be seen it can't be changed).
You always find that anyone who is used to NT has no problem with profiles but if you are used to Win 9x it can be a difficult concept to get your head around
 
Profiles.......Maybe I was wrong......I didn't know anybody was using profiles all that much and maybe the reason I am not fond of them is because I am used to supporting win9x environments.
While I have been using NT/2000 for myself for years, I have never had to support others and that could be the difference. Only for the last 6 months have I been supporting users on Win 2000 machines. I use Novell ZenWorks too which takes care of many of the things profiles do and far easier in my opinion. While some may like them, I wish it was an option like it was in win9x. That would make me happy.
 
Looks like I have started and interesting thread here. My biggest complaint about profiles is when I use my laptop. I login to my domain at work and to my local domain at home (because it boots faster)and it thinks I am 2 different people. It drives me crazy! I have to setup everything twice (icons, settings, desktop, etc..)
 
How would I add the Domain Users to PowerUsers through A group Policy? I'm new here and don't know much.
 
I do the same with a laptop but still use my profile away from the office. It takes a long time to login and find that there is no domain controller but eventually it will load a cached profile. The delays also may be due to Novell client but I haven't verified that yet. Its no too bad. I'd rather that than try to maintain 2 seperate profiles......

This is the main reason why my laptop users aren't getting win2000 installed yet. I don't think they could take the wait......and trying to explain 2 profiles to them would take forever.
 
I do not seem to have the inordinate login time issue away from the office and I travel constantly? Maybe I am just not sensitive to the timing?

Worst case I would use Ghost Enterprise and copy my profile to a local profile. It manages to capture all settings, my documents, etc. with no issues. Besides ghost a person could probably write a quick utility to do this and run it on shutdown every day essentially(sp?) synchronizing your profiles.

Our laptop users generally do not complain about Win2k, but they do complain about the lack of admin rights to &quot;their&quot; laptops. We do not give them local user access to the machines so they have to login as their domain user using cached account information.

Roger

 
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