Win 95 Policy Files

[Phil Docking]

Gerald W. Carter wrote:
> 
> > On another note - in order to get roaming profiles to work on W95 with
> > no NT server, I had to do some horrible things to the registry, which
> > I'm not sure is (or was ever) necessary - it worked so I kept it.
> >
> 
> I was able to get this working ( I think ) by enableing the user
> profiles in the password applet in the control panel and then adding the
> key
> 
> [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Network\Logon]
> "UseHomeDirectory"=dword:00000001
> 
> Did I miss something here?  Seems to work although I am just about to
> role of the scenario in a lab of about 50 machines.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> j-


Yes - this should work as long as you've followed the other instructions
from Microsofts Win95 resource kit (search on 'Maintaining Roving User
Profiles on Other Networks') and the KB article 'Resource kit
Documentation errors' page at
http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q135/8/49.htm
(relevant section summarised below)

Included from Web page:
>Page 488: Maintaining Roving User Profiles on Other Networks 
>
>  Online Help: Maintaining Roving User Profiles on Other
>  Networks
>
>  The [Profiles] section states the following: 
>
>     [Profiles]
>     Mary=\\bigserver\homedirs\mary
>     John=\\bigserver\homedirs\john
>     Pat=\\bigserver\homedirs\pat
>
>
>  This section should read: 
>
>     [Profiles]
>     Mary=\\bigserver\homedirs\mary\user.dat
>     John=\\bigserver\homedirs\john\user.dat
>     Pat=\\bigserver\homedirs\pat\user.dat
>
>
>  The Resource Kit does not include these instructions: 
>
>       You must also add a DWORD value named "UseHomeDirectory" (without quotation
>       marks) to the following registry key: 
>
>             HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Network\Logon
>
>       Set the data value for UseHomeDirectory to 0x00000000 
>       You must also add a STRING value named "SharedProfileList" (without quotation
>       marks) to the following registry key: 
>
>             HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Network\Logon
>
>       Set the string value to \\server\share\profiles.ini 
>

I objected to having to set up a user profile for each user in the
profiles.ini (we have a large number of students who change every year -
and while it can be easily automated, I don't think we should have to do
a job which ought to be included in the OS) So I directly edited the
default user on all PCs to point to 'h:\win95pro' in which the
user.dat/recent/programs/desktop gets stored - apart from a problem
which means that user profile data isn't stored the first time a user
logs in (if win95pro directory does not exist on the server) all seems
to work well.

However, if the Samba team (who are to be applauded for all their other
work - in fact, maybe a standing ovation is in order) have managed to
set up Samba to tell the PC that the 'Home' directory is 'Homes' then
probably just setting
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Network\Logon]"UseHomeDirectory"=dword:00000001 will
do the trick. (I don't know - I haven't read the docs lately...)

Rant:
I don't see why MS have made Win 95/NT so complicated, particularly with
regard to the 'all eggs in one basket' registry - why not separate files
for each application/service/hardware with pointers in a central
registry which can easily be rebuilt if it gets corrupted - a side
effect would be that it would make system admins jobs a lot easier -
which is something MS don't even seem to consider - If I had a choice of
OS for PCs.................
End of Rant.

-- 

	-Phil Docking.