How do I convert roaming profiles to folder redirection?

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marley1

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One of my clients was setup with Roaming Profiles which I cant stand, and each time they swap machine its a few minute login per user. Only a few of the users are on Roaming Profile (owners and managers) rest of the staff are not.

What is the best way to convert to folder redirection? I know how to do folder redirection in group policy just want to know how to disable or restore Roaming Profiles to the local machine, so I can then enforce folder redirection.

If I remove the Roaming Profile location in AD, it should just go to the Local Machine at next login right? Then just enforce Folder redirection?? Just want to make sure nothign i am missing.

Thanks,
 
You can use Roaming profiles with folder redirection, it speeds up the profile login a crap ton.

Just put in the folder redirection policy, let everyone login (will take time to move the docs) and then you can disable to roaming profile if you wish. I would just leave it there
 
yeah i want to ditch roaming profiles all together. if i remove the profile from AD it will stay to the local machines right?
 
We have 2 citrix servers that a majority of the employees log on too. We using Folder Rediction + roaming profiles and it works wonders.

we are redirecting their my docs folder, application data, and desktop all to a network file server. Logon times sucked until I redirected their app data.

Just wondering why you want to do a way with roaming profiles, instead of combining them with folder redirection
 
what would the benefit be? most the users care about are desktop and my documents, email is handled by exchange so should carry over.

what do you need to do to get them to work together?
 
marley1 said:
just read this http://thelazyadmin.com/blogs/thela.../Roaming-Profiles-and-Folder-Redirection.aspx

now generally for folder redirection I do \\server\users\%username%

where do I want to put the roaming profiles?
Click to expand...

This is probably more than what you want but here is what we did:
My Documents (Right to the users personal drive):
\\servername\%username%$
Users Desktop:
\\servername\%username%$\Desktop
App Data:
\\servername\appdata$\%username%
Roaming Profiles (We actually create the profile folder before assigning it in AD) :
\\servername\Profiles$\users folder


Hopefully that is helpful to you
 
I am just trying to figure out if its worth it, for all my installs only thing i worry about is My Doc and Desktop.

Can I just do Folder Redirection with App Data to take care of Outlook or do I need the full roaming profiles for it?
 
marley1 said:
so what exactly would the point of roaming profiles be?
Click to expand...

Roamin profiles are good if you want to leave no trace of a user profile on the PC. other than that, folder redirection is just an alternative.
 
How large is the network? If small, and you can put attention on each user 1 at a time, I'd turn off roaming profiles, go to the workstation, kill it there. Now their profile will stay local after a reboot or two.

Once you've done that, enable My Docs redirection GPO..it'll copy that to the users share on the next reboot or two.

Done.

Not a fan of roaming profiles myself, I try to keep them to a minimum. Gets sloppy if user sits at different computers..esp with different versions of MS Office, sound cards, you'll see broken crap in systray and task bar. And if you server that you store their profile on is a slower SATA based server...ugh...now you really feel the limitations of a SATA server.

I can see the benefits of Roaming Profiles in the larger enterprise setups where uniformity is key, and it helps cut down on IT labor. Its benefits outweight the negs. But in SMB, with frequently mix-matched hardware, and usually more attention to details put towards the end users...I prefer to stay away from them...the benefits do not outweigh the negs.
 
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