Improved First Logon Performance With Folder Redirection

Folder Redirection in Windows Vista and earlier versions has one large drawback: the potentially poor logon performance when a user logs on to her computer for the first time after it has been enabled. This occurs because, in Windows Vista and earlier versions, the user is blocked from logging on until all of her redirected data is migrated to the server. For a user with large amounts of data, this can result in long wait times during which she is prevented from doing useful work on her computer. The problem can be especially frustrating for a user who is logging on over a slow connection. In circumstances in which the user has large amounts of data that needs to be redirected, it can take an hour or longer for the user's desktop to appear when she logs on for the first time after Folder Redirection has been enabled.

Beginning in Windows 7, however, if Offline Files is enabled on the user's computer, first logon performance with Folder Redirection can be significantly improved, particularly for organizations with slower networks. This happens because instead of copying the user's redirected data to the server during the logon process and forcing the user to wait for this operation to finish, the user's redirected data is instead copied into the local Offline Files cache on the user's computer, which is a much faster operation. The user's desktop then appears and the Offline Files cache uploads the user's redirected data to the server using Offline Files synchronization and continues copying the user's data to the server until all of the data is been copied.

Additional enhancements in Windows 7 for improving first logon performance with Folder Redirection include the following:

• Before Windows attempts to copy the user's redirected data to the local Offline Files cache, it now checks to make sure there is enough room in the cache to hold the data. If the data won't fit in the cache, the data will be uploaded to the server during logon, resulting in behavior similar to what happens in Windows Vista and a possibly lengthy delay before the user's desktop appears.
• If the local Offline Files cache has been disabled on the user's computer, Windows now checks whether the server has room for the user's data before attempting to upload the data to the server. If there is not enough room on the server, no data is uploaded, resulting in the user's desktop quickly becoming available. An event is logged in the event log to indicate that the logon occurred without redirecting any data.

Because Offline Files is enabled by default on Windows 7 computers, this improved first logon performance with Folder Redirection also occurs by default.

Note A new feature of Offline Files in Windows 7 called background sync also enhances how Folder Redirection works. For more information on this feature, see the section titled "Additional Enhancements to Offline Files Introduced in Windows 7" later in this tutorial.