Win7 on 2003 server

[Leozack]

I've done lots of reading about this and made my notes of things that need to be done - like copying the policies folder from a win7 pc to the server, and installing the server remote admin tool on the win7 machine to setup the GPOs on the server.

Roaming profiles however are to be left with the same paths and win7 makes a new one with .v2 on it. Ok ... so how do you get them to have the same experience between xp/7 clients? The desktop/favourites/startmenu of one has to forward to the other (maybe appdata too but maybe avoid that to avoid corruption of settings). I tried doing just this, and setting the win7clients ONLY to redirect desktop/startmenu to the desktop/startmenu of the xp profile (same path but no .v2 on the end). This seemed to acheive nothing. It also occured to me that if they took a laptop setup that way home, they'd have none of those redirected folders available (usually only mydocs is redirected and that is sync'd so available at home too) so they'd have empty desktop/favourites/startmenu anytime they had no server access. This seems to break the whole possibility. Any thoughts from those forced to accomodate this type of setup? So far I'm downgrading 7's to xp and saying "get a 2008 server first" and those with a 2008 server I'm still downgrading the 7's to xp to avoid the hassle since I can't get it work with roaming profiles, as above

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Leozack

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[Leozack]

Anyone any thoughts on this? I can't find solutions online for mixed mode win7/xp roaming profiles & GPOs on either 2003 servers or 2008 servers. My only notes on the issue are these :

When vista/win7 makes a profile it makes a new .v2 folder in the same location as the XP profile would be. If you want to share the same desktop/favourites/startmenu between the profiles you'd have to point them via GPO to the same location, easiest being the location within the XP profile though for future purposes it should be the location within the v2 profile.

Using 2008 server for policies log onto a vista/win7 client and copy the files from
C:\windows\PolicyDefinitions
to the central policy store on the server at
\\server\SYSVOL\Policies\PolicyDefinitions

Using 2003 server install RSAT on a vista/win7 client and make the policies which will be saved back to the 2003 server specific for vista/win7

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Leozack

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[IllogicallyLogical]

As you are aware, due to the differences between the structures of Windows XP and Windows 7 the profiles are incompatible and the data does not transfer between the two profiles when a user goes back-and-forth. To work around this issue you would need to implement folder redirection, so each profile would look to the same location for documents, favorites, etc. You mentioned if they take a laptop home they would not have their data if they didn't have access to the server. To work around that issue, implement offline files.

Joey
CCNA, MCSA 2003, MCP, A+, Network+, CWTS

 

[Leozack]

Usually we have redirection only for mydocs, and mydocs is available offline. I guess nowq you mention it the exact same strategy could be used for desktop/startmenu/favourites. I'm not sure about appdata though since they use it differently and surely things would get corrupted?
Of course it doesn't help that despite following my above notes on getting plices setup on 2003 server for 7 clients I didn't seem to pickup the redirection policies while logged onto 7 laptop, the desktop & startmenu remained empty despite supposedly redirecting to the xp profiles desktop/startmenu

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Leozack

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[IllogicallyLogical]

If you have the proper policies configured for the domain(s) and they are not being applied to the Windows 7 machines when you log on, you will want to check for issues with policy processing. Check the event logs on the Windows 7 machines for errors related to the processing of the folder redirection policy. Run "Resultant Set of Policy" (rsop.msc) and see if it gives you any information on what is causing the problem. Also, have a look at the following article as it explains some of the new features with folder redirection when you are using Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Vista.

- Folder Redirection Overview

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732275.aspx

Joey
CCNA, MCSA 2003, MCP, A+, Network+, CWTS

 

[Leozack]

Thanks for the link. I've read about the redirection previous - I'm just concerned that redirecting startmenu/desktop/faves from the profile to a network location (and appdata though since some apps will have dif settings for xp/7 then surely that's going to get corrupted if both os using the same appdata path?) that unlike mydocs redirection where on portable machines offline files keeps it sync'd - with these other folders that are needed TO USE the profile, syncing in the background won't work cos they need to all be sync'd before you can even log on properly? Or is that forced just by having those settings like that?

I guess I'd also have to make template profiles in both xp and 7 for users. Right now I've downgraded any 7's to XP so I can't test this 7 stuff anymore until the next time I'm forced to play guesswork in a production environment which I'm not happy with :/

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Leozack

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