Windows 7 / Getting Started

Disabling Known Folders

Administrators who want to minimize user confusion around known folders being recreated by applications can disable specific known folders in Windows 7 by enabling and configuring the following Group Policy setting:

User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Explorer
\Disable Known Folders

For example, the Sample Videos known folder has the Known Folder ID of {440fcffd-a92b- 4739-ae1a-d4a54907c53f} and the Canonical ID name of SampleVideos. By enabling this policy setting and specifying either the Known Folder ID or Canonical ID of this folder, you can prevent the folder from being created using the known folder API. If the folder already exists before the policy setting is applied, the folder must be deleted manually (the policy only blocks the creation of the folder).

Warning Disabling a known folder can introduce application compatibility issues for applications that depend on the folder.

Moving User Profiles

In previous versions of Windows, the Moveuser utility (part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools) can be used to map an existing local user account profile to a new domain account profile when a computer in a workgroup is being joined to a domain. The Moveuser utility can also be used to map an existing domain account profile to a new domain account profile. In Windows Vista and later versions, however, Moveuser will not work and has been replaced by a downloadable User Profile Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) provider. For more information on obtaining this WMI provider, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 930955, "Moveuser.exe Is Incompatible with Windows Vista and Is Replaced by the New Win32_UserProfile WMI Functionality," at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930955.

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In this tutorial:

  1. Managing Users and User Data
  2. Understanding User Profiles in Windows 7
  3. Types of User Profiles
  4. User Profile Namespace
  5. User Profile Namespace in Windows XP
  6. User Profile Namespace in Windows Vista and Windows 7
  7. Application Compatibility Issue
  8. Disabling Known Folders
  9. Windows 7 Understanding Libraries
  10. Working with Libraries
  11. Including Indexed Folders in a Library
  12. Adding Nonindexed Remote Locations to a Library
  13. Creating Additional Libraries
  14. Managing Libraries
  15. Implementing Corporate Roaming
  16. Understanding Roaming User Profiles and Folder Redirection
  17. Understanding Roaming User Profiles in Earlier Versions of Windows
  18. Understanding Folder Redirection in Earlier Versions of Windows
  19. Enhancements to Roaming User Profiles and Folder Redirection Previously Introduced in Windows Vista
  20. Additional Enhancements to Roaming User Profiles and Folder Redirection Introduced in Windows 7
  21. Improved First Logon Performance With Folder Redirection
  22. Implementing Folder Redirection
  23. Configuring the Redirection Method
  24. Configuring Target Folder Location
  25. Configuring Redirection Options
  26. Configuring Policy Removal Options
  27. Folder Redirection and Sync Center
  28. Considerations for Mixed Environments
  29. Additional Group Policy Settings for Folder Redirection
  30. Troubleshooting Folder Redirection
  31. Implementing Roaming User Profiles
  32. Creating a Default Network Profile
  33. Configuring a User Account to Use a Roaming Profile
  34. Implementing Mandatory Profiles
  35. Implementing Super-Mandatory Profiles
  36. Managing User Profiles Using Group Policy
  37. Working with Offline Files
  38. Enhancements to Offline Files Introduced Previously in Windows Vista
  39. Additional Enhancements to Offline Files Introduced in Windows 7
  40. Understanding Offline File Sync
  41. Modes of Operation in Offline Files
  42. Managing Offline Files
  43. Managing Offline Files Using Windows Explorer
  44. Managing Offline Files Using the Offline Files Control Panel
  45. Managing Offline Files Using Sync Center
  46. Configuring Offline Files on the Server
  47. Managing Offline Files Using Group Policy
  48. Offline Files Policy Settings Introduced in Windows Vista
  49. Additional Offline Files Policy Settings for Windows 7