[Samba] My Documents Folder Redirection to Samba Share

[Adam Williams]

on an XP Professional computer, Download Win2k SP4 self install package 
at 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1001AAF1-749F-49F4-8010-297BD6CA33A0&displaylang=en

and open up a dos window (start, run, cmd), and go to where you saved it 
(example, cd c:\temp) and then run W2KSP4_EN.exe -x and it will ask 
where to extract to, and use a temporary directory like c:\temp2.  then 
go to c:\temp3\i386 and run adminpak.msi.  it will complain "This 
version of win2k admin tools pack is not compatible with this version of 
windows".  ignore it and install it anyway.  then when its done, you can 
start, run, poledit.exe and get the "System Policy Editor" to open up.  
click on options, policy template, add c:\windows\inf\common.adm, 
winnt.adm, and wuau.adm (if you use a WSUS server).  then click on file, 
new policy, 2x click on default user, folder redirection, folder 
location, personal.  That is their My Documents folder.  I redirect it 
to r:\My Documents

(R: is their  
logon drive = R:  
logon home = \\SERVER\%U

[homes]
  comment = Home Directories
  valid users = %S
  read only = no
  browseable = No

 ) in my smb.conf. 

Anyway, save the policy as NTConfig.POL and put it in the directory of 
your netlogon share (for me its /var/lib/samba/netlogon) and make sure 
they have permissions to read the file.


On the user's next logon their My Documents will be redirected to R:\My 
Documents.  If the directory does not exit, XP will automatically create 
it.  The only problem is it won't move the files the first time the 
redirection happens, so your users will call you with "ALL MY MY 
DOCUMENTS ARE GONE!" and you will have to go to their computer and move 
c:\documents and settings\username\my documents\* to r:\my documents one 
time.  Maybe you can add to logon.bat a move c:\documents and 
settings\%U\my documents\* r:\my documents but I have never tried that.

Also you will probably want to log in as administrator on their computer 
and open up explorer.exe and go to tools, folder options, offiline files 
and synchronization and turn both off, or when they log out, it will 
copy their my documents to their offline files folder.

If you need poledit templates for Vista, you can get them at 
http://www.pcc-services.com/custom_poledit.html

I hope my information is helpful to you.


Michael Melia Jr. wrote:
> Does anyone know how to setup the smb.conf file for the my document
> folder redirection in windows.  If I point it to a root share, with a
> Microsoft file server, it will automatically create a folder for each
> user with a my documents folder under that.  How can I get that to
> happen with a samba share.  Using Debian Etch and Samba 3.0.24 and
> fairly new to samba.  The default smb.conf makes mention of %S but also
> says that it would need to be tweaked if using different auth schemes.
> I am using ads with winbind with AD2003. Everything else works fine.
>
> Thanks,
> Michael
>