Windows 7 / Networking

Implementing Roaming Profiles

  1. Start the domain controller and log on.
  2. Create a shared folder to store the user profiles with the following steps:
    • Start Windows Explorer by clicking Start → Computer.
    • Double-click the C: drive. Right-click the main Windows pane and click New → Folder. Name the folder Profiles or another name that matches your company's needs.
    • Select Share from the Windows Explorer toolbar.
    • Type Authenticated Users in the text box, and click Add. (You can also click Find And Search and use the Active Directory search tool to locate any group.) Change Reader to Contributor.
    • Click Share. Click Done.
    • Launch Active Directory Users and Computers by clicking Start → Administrative Tools → Active Directory Users And Computers.
    • Locate a user account. Right-click the user account and click Properties.
    • Select the Profile tab. Enter the UNC path to the share in the Profile Path text box. For my test bed, I created the Profiles share on DC1, so the full path is \\DC1\Profiles\%UserName%. Click OK.

If you look in the Profiles folder now, you won't see anything. However, the next time the user logs on, a folder will be created for the user in the UNC path.

The operating system also configures the NTFS permissions for the folder. The user and the system both have full control of the folder, but no other users are granted any access to the data in the folder.

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