[Samba] Windows 7 often creates new user profiles

[Cain, Marc]

On May 12, 2012, at 1:12 PM, steve wrote:

> On 05/12/2012 09:57 PM, Jorell wrote:
>> On 5/12/2012 8:54 AM, John Drescher wrote:
>>> On Sat, May 12, 2012 at 11:47 AM, Christian Meier<ch2009 at arcor.de>  wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> 
>>>> we're using Samba 3.5.6 (Debian).
>>>> 
>>>> Windows 7 clients often create new roaming profiles for existing users for no identifiable reason. Windows XP isn't affected. the end.
>>>> 
>>>> Is this a known problem?
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> I have never ever had that happen in the 2+ years I had windows 7
>>> machines on my samba based domain.
>>> 
>>> John
>> 
>> When Windows 7 creates the new profile is it creating %USERNAME%.V2?
>> 
> Hi
> Yes. That's what we observe. xp creates %USERNAME% and win7 creates the same but with .V2 at the end. They are _extremely_ permission sensitive folders. win7 seems unable to load the profile from the server if the hive at NTUSER.DAT has been changed, e.g. even simply moved from one place to another. One workaround we use is to put the profile in the home folder of the user. Then it always seem to work.
> HTH
> Steve

The creation of a new profile with a .V2 extension is is a Windows 7 feature that prevents Windows 7 from overwriting incompatible settings in earlier Windows profile versions.

Windows user profile folders need full permissions for the user and ownership by user.