[Samba] Creating mandatory profiles (not making profiles mandatory)

["M. Müller"]

Ilia Chipitsine schrieb:

>> Hi,
>> is it possible to create the user profiles by copying a template, 
>> change file ownership and modify the SID in NTUSER.DAT using the 
>> profile tool?
>> We have many problems with broken profiles. This has become time 
>> consuming
>
>                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> there're few tips which I came to after using roaming profiles for 
> several years, those tips will significately reduce number of problems 
> with roaming profiles:
>
> 1) watch that profiles are less than 30Mb (number of files also is 
> important)
>
> 2) when user first logs in, if there no profile exists, "Default User" 
> profile is taken from \\$LOGONSERVER\NETLOGON, so you can have special 
> default profile for new users. otherwise local "Default User" profile 
> is taken.
>
> 3) redirect common folders like Desktop, My Documents out of roaming 
> profile. they can live on network share in user's home directory, but 
> not in the roaming profile. this can be achived either by manipulating 
> registry directly or by using nt4 style domain policies, I can even 
> send You custom ADM template for that.
>
> Outlook.pst can also be redirected out of roaming profile.
> simply move it to another place and start MS Outlook, it will ask You 
> where to find outlook.pst
>
> 4) be careful with terminal services. samba doesn't understand 
> separate profiles for terminal services, so you can ruin roaming profile.
>
> 5) make sure you are using the same version of Windows on all computers.
> w2k <--> xp can also break many things in profile
>
> 6) make sure other things than Windows are the same on all computers.
> particularly MS Office.
>
> 7) You can create "profile backup system",
>
> put, for example
>
> regedit /e \\SERVER\share\%UserName%-of2k3.reg 
> "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0"
>
> at logon script and after that You can easily delete broken profile 
> and restore required things from backup.
>
> 8) xp behave weird on roaming profiles.
> even if You reqiure "delete cached copies of roaming profiles on 
> exit", xp leaves copy and !!! if You delete network copy of roaming 
> profile (in order to create profile from "Default User"), xp picks up 
> local cached copy. so, in such case You need to remove both network 
> and local cached copy of profile. no idea how to make xp delete it on 
> exit.
>
>> and frustrating - when a user experiences an error or weird behaviour 
>> of an application I can never be sure wether the cause is a "wrong 
>> user error", a broken profile or defect in installation. If I want 
>> all users or groups of users to have the same profile I should be 
>> able to create it for them.
>> I already use the "default user", but with that I only can make a 
>> profile mandatory after the user's first logoff.
>> I could try myself, but I sometimes experience that "tricks" that 
>> work at first and look good have some side effects I didn't think of, 
>> so I would appreciate comments from people who tried that, or maybe 
>> someone knows why this is rather a bad idea.
>>
>> With kind regards,
>> Malte Mueller
>>
>>
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>
>
Thanks a lot Ilia!

We have 200 PC and nearly all have a reborn-card or such, which prevents 
any lokal changes, so local copies of profiles do not exist. Users log 
in very often to different Computers and need to have a defined 
environment i.e. an available profile. I already use a "default 
user"-profile and redirected folders (thanks John, the book helped a 
lot). Nevertheless I feel that I cannot rely on the profiles' integrety 
once a user had a chance to modify it. Making a registry copy is a good 
tip, i will use that, at least for some users. But rather than backing 
up I would very much appreciate to set up a defined profile for each 
user. I think it would make life a lot easier for me (and the users).

With kind regards
Malte Mueller